Jeffrey Gurian's Blog
September 15, 2025
COMEDY MATTERS – SPECIAL EDITION WITH JEFFREY ROSS ON BROADWAY, CHRIS DISTEFANO AT THE THEATER AT MSG, AND NATE BARGATZE AT THE EMMY’S!
JEFF ROSS BRINGS A BANANA TO BROADWAYI’ve had the pleasure of knowing Jeffrey Ross for more than 20 years, and there’s nothing better than seeing a friend do well, except maybe seeing YOURSELF do well! (LOL) I was at the Roast they did of Jeff Ross back in the day, when my pal uber-manager Barry Katz, who managed Dave Chappelle, Bill Burr, Tracy Morgan, Nick Swardson, Wanda Sykes and so many more, owned the Boston Comedy Club down in the Village! Below are just some of the photos of me and Jeffrey taken over the years!
WITH JEFFREY IN 2005
WITH JEFFREY IN 2006 AT A FRIARS ROAST
WITH JEFFREY IN 2007As a member of The Friars Club for so many years, ( humble brag – Milton Berle was my sponsor! LOL) and as the main writer for the legendary Roasts for 12 years under producer Bob Saks, I was thrilled to watch Jeff climb to the honored position of RoastMaster General. He kind of took over for Milton as being the Roast Master and could always be counted on to absolutely destroy the crowd with such sharp material.
WITH COMIC STRIP OWNER RICHIE TIENKEN WHEN WE DID JEFF’S INTERVIEW FOR MY BOOK “MAKE ‘EM LAUGH“
AT JOAN RIVERS’ FUNERAL- JEFF LOOKS LIKE AN MMA FIGHTER
WITH JEFF AT GOTHAM COMEDY CLUB
WITH JEFF IN 2014
WITH JEFF IN 2015So it was very exciting for me to see Jeffrey attain the honor of having a one-man show on Broadway, which only a handful of other comedians have done, like Jackie Mason and Mike Birbiglia. Other comics like the great Dick Capri, the very first comedian I ever wrote for, were stars in an ensemble like Catskills on Broadway which was still a HUGE honor, but doing it all by yourself is truly a rarity.
“Take A Banana For The Ride” is not only funny but the very touching story of Jeffrey’s life, having lost both of his parents at a very early age, and basically being raised by his maternal grandfather Jack, who he affectionately called “Pop Jack” and who Jeffrey credits for giving him the incentive to be in comedy. As a young man his grandfather would give him a few bucks and told him to “take a banana for the ride” referring to the bus ride from New Jersey to Manhattan where Jeffrey would perform in clubs.
No one outside of comedy knows the struggles you have to face and the obstacles you have to overcome to become known in comedy. It’s truly amazing that anyone ever makes it at all! Besides the personal struggles, which were huge, Jeffrey fortunately overcame a battle with colon cancer, the story of which he makes part of the show, revealing that they had to take 9 inches off of his colon, leaving him with just a “semi-colon”, a great joke that only a true comedian could come up with.
The show is much more than a “performance”, because a performance can feel just that, … like a performance, … like it’s contrived. Jeff speaks from his heart, as if you were with him one on one. It’s very personal. There were moments that It moved me and many people to tears. It needs to have an extended run!!!
WITH JEFF BACKSTAGE AT THE NEDERLANDER THEATERBackstage after the show I had the opportunity to congratulate Jeff personally and reminisce about some special times we shared. Like the time in Montreal at the JFL Festival, when he and I were having lunch together, and a man came over to the table and apologized for interrupting our lunch but told Jeffrey to stay another day, because his film Patriot Act had won the top award! I never forgot that and neither did Jeff!
Then there was the time he lost his phone in an Uber, which is a very traumatic thing, and we were outside of a comedy club in Manhattan, and I felt so bad for him that instead of going inside to watch the show, I stayed with him and we used my phone to track down his phone and actually got it back!
THANK YOU TO STAND-UP COLORING BOOK!Every once in a while I get contacted by some talented artist who gifts me with something special. This time it was Christian of Stand-Up Coloring Books on Instagram that created this little cartoon thingy for me promoting the new video about me, shot and directed by @TheHomeless Pimp, which you can see below if you are so inclined!!!
NOEL LEON AT EASTVILLE COMEDYNoel Leon, comic/actress/influencer did a show at Eastville Comedy Club out in Brooklyn and people know that basically the only way to get me out to Brooklyn is to put me on the show, so she did! (LOL) Last year we had done a little film together called “A Walk In The Park” which she described as “an homage to Woody Allen” who was my comedic inspiration. He actually read my earliest material, and encouraged me to go further with it. Also I find it hard to go to Brooklyn because I have no beard!
Noel’s show is more like a performance piece, which would be great in a theater, as she does characters, mixed in with the jokes. She had Kate Robards as the host, with Mickey Gooch, who was there with his family including his Mom, but didn’t let that stop him from doing his material, and the always funny Corinne Fisher from her hit podcast “Guys We F***ed” dropped by to do a guest spot. Always special to see Corinne! Little did I know that I’d have the pleasure of seeing her again the following week backstage at Chris Distefano’s show at The Theater at MSG, which you’ll be reading about next! Totally fun night out in Brooklyn, … even with no beard! !
PROOF THAT I WAS THERE!!! ((NO BEARD!) 
NOEL LEON ON STAGE
CORINNE FISHER ON STAGECHRIS DISTEFANO KILLS IT AGAIN AT MSG THEATEREverybody loves Chris Distefano. There’s just something about the guy. You gotta love him! And talking about how long I know someone. I know Chris Distefano through his transformation from an infant when he was my guest on Sirius XM’s Ron and Fez show back in 2014 to the rock star he looks like now!
CHRIS D AS AN INFANT WITH ME ON SIRIUS XM
CHRISSY D LOOKING LIKE THE ROCK STAR HE IS!!!So when his manager Emilio Savone, owner of 5 NY Comedy Clubs told me that he would be back at the Theater at MSG for the second time, I told him to save me two seats!
Of course Chris had his main guy James Mattern hosting the show. James opens for Chris all over the world. And I think it’s safe to say that nobody brings the energy like James Mattern, … and the guy doesn’t even need a mic! He could be whispering and you’re like ” James, tone it down!” LOL He gets the audience psyched and won’t even let Chris come out ’til they are at a fever pitch!
“Aruba Ray” Ellin flew in from Aruba … where he spends half the year performing at his own comedy club, … to be the first comic to entertain after James warmed up the crowd. Ray is reliably funny and takes self-deprecating humor to another level. Every audience loves self-deprecating humor cause it males them feel like they’re ok, but when Ray does a thing about his hair that makes him look like certain historical figures, the audience is screaming with laughter.
I’ll never forget the first night I met Ray, many, many years ago at The Comic Strip. I don’t even know if he remembers this. I started Comedy Matters 25 years ago and it was fairly new when this happened, but Ray saw me taking notes at his show, and didn’t know I was writing a column. He thought I was copying down his jokes, and when he found out the truth we both had a good laugh about it, and have been friends ever since.
He even hosted a diabetes fund-raiser for me at The Strip and starred in a little film I wrote for YouTube star Lauren Francesca, who played a character known as Besame Mucho, the best kisser in the world, and Ray had to kiss her in the film. I think he still owes me for that! (LOL)
( Well, … he did invite me down to Aruba this coming March, so that’s something!!! )
Then James announced a very special guest and Colin Quinn came out to thunderous applause. Colin and I go back probably even before I started writing Comedy Matters, to the days he was doing MTV’s Remote Control, and I was writing for MTV’s Friday Night Video Fights! We were both children, and MTV was in it’s infancy! LOL
WITH COLIN IN 2010
WHEN COLIN WAS MY VERY FIRST GUEST ON SIRIUS XM WITH RON AND FEZ-2014
WITH COLIN IN 2018 WHEN WE SHOT AN EPISODE OF HBO’S CRASHING AT THE COMEDY CELLARColin was my very first guest on Sirius XM with Ron Bennington and Fez Whatley back in 2014. I knew him before he had any facial hair. Then we did an episode of Crashing together at The Comedy Cellar back in 2018 and in December of 2023 I got to open for him at the Vermont Comedy Festival and we had a blast hanging out and running around Vermont for the weekend. Then we drove back to NY together. It’s ALWAYS great to see Colin!
WITH COLIN QUINN BACKSTAGE AT THE THEATER AT MSG AFTER CHRIS D’S SHOW-9/11/25After the show we all got to hang out backstage which as I always say is the fun part for me. It’s the part that most people never get to see! But that’s why you read this column! (LOL) Here’s a sneak peek for you guys, starting with the ovation Chris got after the show!
THE PROGRESSION OF NATE BARGATZENo one can ever tell me I don’t have a good eye for talent. When I brought Nate Bargatze on Sirius XM as my guest back in 2014, I knew he’d be big, but had no idea HOW big! Highest grossing comedy performer in Boxscore history in 2024, when his “The Be Funny Tour” brought in 82.2 million buckaroos! In 2023 his special “Hello World” on Amazon Prime became the platform’s most-streamed original comedy special in its first 28 days of viewership, and this Sunday he Exec. Produced and hosted The Emmy awards on CBS at the Peacock Theater in LA. I think that’s a pretty big thing! And he looks like a different person! Success does that for people. It allows you to become who you were meant to be!
WITH NATE AT SIRIUS XM – 2014
WITH NATE AT JFL-2015
WITH NATE AT THE RICH VOS ROAST 2017And this is how he looks now hosting The Emmy’s!!!
NATE BARGATZE HOSTING THE 2025 EMMY’S Sorry but that’s it for this issue! More coming soon, but I wanted to get the Jeffrey Ross story out asap to encourage the powers that be to extend the show!
Make sure to follow Jeffrey on IG at @jeffreygurian and on TikTok at @jeffreylgurian and of course on YouTube when you watch the videos in this column!!! Bye for now!!!
The post COMEDY MATTERS – SPECIAL EDITION WITH JEFFREY ROSS ON BROADWAY, CHRIS DISTEFANO AT THE THEATER AT MSG, AND NATE BARGATZE AT THE EMMY’S! appeared first on Jeffrey Gurian.
August 25, 2025
COMEDY MATTERS ROUND-UP WITH NICK KROLL, MARC MARON, JIM GAFFIGAN, MIKE BIRBIGLIA, HASAN MINHAJ, JIM GAFFIGAN, JEFF GARLIN, BORSCHT BELT COMEDY AND LOTS MORE!!!
MIKE BIRBIGLIA AND HASAN MINHAJ AT 92Y TALKING ABOUT MIKE’S LATEST HIT SPECIAL “THE GOOD LIFE”92NY KILLING IT ON THE COMEDY SCENEIn this issue of Comedy Matters alone there are three killer events at the 92nd Second Street Y! So kudos to 92NY!!! As for the first event, let me say that there are very few comics who can pull off solo shows. And even less ones who can turn them into films. Mike Birbiglia is one of those guys who can!
I’ve known MIke since the early 2000’s and have the photos to prove it! ( See below) And I’ve been a big fan of his ever since I saw his first one-man show “Sleepwalk With Me”, back in 2008 at the Bleecker Street Theater. It was presented by Broadway star Nathan Lane, and it was a huge hit! Thanks to Mike, I have’t been able to get word “jackal” out of my consciousness for the last 17 years. If you saw the show, you’ll get it.
WITH MIKE BACKSTAGE SOMEWHERE EARLY 2000’S
WITH MIKE BACKSTAGE AT THE BLEECKER STREET THEATER FOR SLEEPWALK WITH ME–2008The sight of what he thought was a jackal in his bedroom, while sleep-walking, caused him to leap out the window in order to escape it. Thank G-d he survived because he’s done five more solo shows since, that people needed to see, and I believe I’ve seen them all. My Girlfriend’s Boyfriend, Thank G-d for Jokes, The New One, The Old Man In The Pool, and currently The Good Life which they played at the 92Y before Mike took the stage for a conversation with Hasan Minhaj,another great comic story-teller. Putting them together on the stage was a masterful choice.
WITH MIKE BACKSTAGE AT THE CORT THEATER FOR “THE NEW ONE”–CIRCA 2018
MIKE AND HASAN ON STAGE
ALL THE THANK YOU’SMike has a way of tackling difficult topics like his Dad’s stroke, and making it touching and funny at the same time. He also talked a lot about fatherhood in a way you can tell how happy he is to be a Dad. It’s always interesting to me personally cause I knew all these guys when they were single and now they’re Dads! LOL The show is definitely a must-see, and is streaming on Netflix, his 4th Netflix special.
I had gotten a taste of it when Mike did a guest spot on Judd Apatow’s show at The Beacon Theater last November during the New York Comedy Festival. And when I went backstage to see Mike we talked about his Dad’s stroke and how he was doing at the time.
Hasan’s latest special, his third on Netflix is called “Off With His Head” . I’ve been at all of his other two specials as well, the first being “Homecoming King” back around 2016, and then “The King’s Jester” in 2022. Doing a one-man show is such a different medium. I too had always wanted to do a one man show, but I could never figure out who that one man should be!!! Just a few of my Hasan memories!!!
FROM MY DANCING WITH COMEDIANS SERIES-1/8/16
AT JFL MONTREAL- PHOTOBOMB COURTESY OF TREVOR NOAH-7/24/15
BACKSTAGE AT THE CHERRY LANE THEATER FOR HOMECOMING KING-1/8/16After the show as I always do, I went backstage to say hi and congratulate them both. Mike was running out to an event but kindly took a moment to run over for a quick hug, and then I got to see Hasan!
JEFF GARLIN REPS OLD JEWISH MENOld Jewish Men is a popular site on Instagram and for the second spectacular 92NY comedy event, Jeff Garlin agreed to be placed in that category in conversation with Noah Rinsky, the young Jewish man who wrote the book “The Old Jewish Men’s Guide to Eating, Sleeping, and Futzing Around” moderated by a real Rabbi, Rabbi David Ingber, who I’m not sure got all the jokes, since Rabbi’s are rarely known for their sense of humor!
When it comes to Judaism they have it down pat, but the number of Rabbis doing stand-up is probably very small, although I actually did see one at the Borscht Belt Fest, and more on that later on in this column!
Jeff told a funny story about his Bar Mitzvah, and how he put on a happy face for his Mom, but the truth was the only good thing about it in his estimation was the cake! And Jeff must have lost about a hundred pounds in recent years, so the memory of that cake may be the only cake he gets these days!
JEFF GARLIN ON HIS BAR MITZVAHMARC MARON AND JIM GAFFIGAN PANICKED
The third 92NY comedy event was with Marc Maron in conversation with Jim Gaffigan, another amazing coupling of talent. In each of these events I’ve known these guys for many years and I recall being at Marc’s show ” Scorching The Earth” back in 2008, mostly about his break-up with his second wife Mishna, who I also knew well.
That show left an indelible impression on me that has never left. I actually recall where I sat, 17 years ago, because I think I was traumatized by the honesty of his performance, and our traumas are deeply engrained in our consciousness. I didn’t know that anyone could be that vulnerable on stage or would want to be that vulnerable. I know I couldn’t do it!
In “Panicked” the opening was very political leading into studies of his anxieties, and relationships. like the one with his father who has dementia, and the theme of aging, all through Marc’s unique perspective. At the 92Y you get the opportunity to fill out question cards before the show, and I was wondering if I wrote something personal to both him and Jim whether they’d read it out loud, or possibly roast me in front of the entire audience so I chose not to do it!
I did get to say “Hi” afterwards when Marc stayed on the stage for a few minutes greeting fans. I had sent JIm an e-mail before the show to let him know I was coming, but he wrote back to me the next day to apologize that he didn’t see it till the day after! Oh well! ( The photos below show how long I know these guys!!! And NONE of us have aged one bit!!! LOLOLOL)
WITH MARC AT SCORCHING THE EARTH-2009
MARC IN 2002
WITH MARC AT 92Y FOR SWORD OF TRUST FILM-2019
WITH JIM GAFFIGAN-JUNE 2001
WITH JIM AT THE COMIC STRIP-2009
WITH JIM AMD JEANNIE GAFFIGAN AT CAROLINES-2015NICK KROLL IN FREE SHOW AT MADISON SQUARE PARKNew Yorkers got a special treat on one of the hottest nights of the year both literally and figuratively. It was 95 degrees and Nick Kroll brought his talents and his close comedy friends Rachel Feinstein, Ricky Velez, Sam Jay, and Jason Mantzoukas to do a free show for 1500 people spread out on the lawn of the beautiful Madison Square Park where Nick’s wife Lily Kwong created the beautiful installation known as “The Gardens of Renewal.”
She worked in collaboration with the Madison Square Conservancy to transform the park into a living artwork with special plantings, including a beautiful Meditation Garden and an interactive Children’s Garden. Lily was there as well.
The weird thing for me was that I was due at the same time at an event out on Staten Island which is an hour trip, but I didn’t went to miss seeing Nick perform. so I went there first knowing I could not stay for the whole thing. There was heavy security and metal stanchions closing off the space where Nick was hanging out “backstage” in kind of a tent with Jason Mantzoukas who I even recognized from the back! Some people, … like myself, … seem to be easily recognizable even from far away! (LOL)
NICK AND JASON MANTZOULAS IN THE TENT
NICK ON STAGE
THE AUDIENCEYou had to sign in with people in order to get to the area where Nick was hanging out, but I planned to watch the show from outside the metal stanchions so hopefully I could leave without disturbing anyone. That worked until Nick spotted me loitering at the gates and yelled out something like ” Let Jeffrey Gurian in” which I was very grateful for. So I went in and took a seat on the ground with everyone else, and got to see Rachel and Nick perform before I had to leave. A commitment is a commitment! But seeing Nick perform even for a few moments is always worth it to me!
Nick led the 1500 person audience in a guided meditation and issued an unusual challenge!!!
MARCUS RUSSELL PRICE AND THE HOMELESS PIMP BOTH VISIT THE COMEDY MATTERS CRIBNot together but at separate times two of the most celebrated photographers and videographers on the comedy scene honored me with a visit to the Comedy Matters crib to check out my Comedy Museum, and shoot fun stuff with me! It would be hard to find a major comedy event where you wouldn’t see Marcus running up and down the aisle shooting pix of the action, and then again backstage. Even backstage at shows at places like City Winery like a recent show where Nick Kroll did a guest headliner spot!
WITH MARCUS RUSSELL PRICE IN FRONT OF ONE OF THE WALLS OF THE COMEDY MATTERS MUSEUMBoth of these guys also shoot and direct comedy specials, and Marcus has also produced shows, some of which I attended at Lincoln Center! ( Classy guy!!!) I think Pimp told me he directed 30 comedy specials already.
I got to experience Pimp’s talent when he filmed me on Chris DiStefano’s podcast, and for Joe DeRosa’s music video “Mouth On My Money.” He did such an extraordinary job of adding hilarious special effects, like where there was about 100 of me on the screen all doing different moves.
I neglected to say that my part was dancing like a maniac to the song played by Joe’s group Salsa Windfall. I keep meaning to ask Joe how he chose that name! When I agreed to do the part I had no idea I’d be dancing alone! (LOL) It was one of the most fun things I’ve ever done and I totally challenged myself to do it! You can see it here! ( Above!) Btw, Joe just got to perform on a Dave Chapelle live show!
Anyway I had a blast with both Marcus and Pimp. We shot lots of video, … even of me playing the piano, … which is still being edited by both of them. but which you will be seeing very shortly!!! Personally I can’t wait!!! This is a little video I shot with Pimp!
PODCAST KING COMES TO VISITIt was truly a month for people visiting, shooting videos and recording podcasts at the Comedy Matters crib. Radio legend Buzz Knight, who produces the podcast Music Saved Me, through his company Buzz Knight Media, now also produces two other podcasts including “Takin’ A Walk” and the one most pertinent to readers of this column ” Comedy Saved Me.”
The “Music Saved Me” podcast, as well as “Comedy Saved Me” is hosted by Lynn Hoffman, a superstar radio and TV celeb interviewer, known for the intimate depth of her interviews, and It explores music’s healing and transformative power by featuring personal stories from musicians who have been impacted by their art. Now they’re doing comedy, and I was honored to be a guest! And strictly by coincidence the podcast came out this morning!
WITH BUZZ KNIGHT IN FRONT OF TWO OF THE WALLS OF THE COMEDY MATTERS MUSEUM
ON ZOOM WITH BUZZ AND THE AMAZING LYNN HOFFMANWhen Buzz came by to see the famed “Comedy Museum” with photos going back decades, he decided we should also tape an interview for “Takin’ A Walk”, which included an in-depth interview of my long history in comedy. Will be out very soon and the link will be posted!!!
BORSCHT BELT FEST A BIG SUCCESSThe tremendous success of Netflix’s The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel has led to a resurgence of interest in that time, … the 50’s, when hotels like Grossingers, The Concord, and The Nevele were the place to be seen.
The Catskill mountains resorts were known as The Borscht Belt because many of he early immigrants who built the hotels and came to stay were Eastern European Jews who ate borscht. Not sure if I ever had any , but it was a soup made from beets. I may not have had any borscht but I certainly frequented the Borscht Belt. It’s where many comedians performed before the days of comedy clubs. I was there as a child, singing solo in a choir and also as an adult, meeting and writing for the various comedians that performed there.
I was recenly in several scenes of a new documentary called ” We Met At Grossingers” Exec-produced by Harris Salomon of Atlantic Overseas Pictures and Bobby Friedman of Bungalow Entertainment, and directed by award-winning director Paula Eiselt. They had their LA premiere on July 9th.
WITH DIRECTOR PAULA EISELT AT GOTHAM COMEDY CLUBIt’s the 4th doc on comedy I’ve been in and we shot my scenes at Gotham Comedy Club, where I was interviewed by Paula and Bennett Elliot and where I brought some photos from back in the day as well as postcards I collected as a child from Grossingers, which are still in pristine condition. The other films I was in were a doc on Robin Willams, which I think was called ” Robin Wiliams- Come Inside My Mind”, “The Business of Comedy”, and “Eat, Drink and Laugh- The Story of The Comic Strip.”
Harris and renowned writer Alan Zweibel, the man who gave me my start in comedy, have created a scripted series called “The Mountains” of which you’ll be hearing a lot about in the near future.
Now in Ellenville, NY there is a Borsct Belt Museum and for the third year in a row they sponsor the Borscht Belt Comedy Festival over a weekend at the end of July. There was an opening night party on Friday night, and a lot of fun shows over Saturday and Sunday culminating in a street fair on Sunday afternoon.
SOME KIND PERSON POSTED THIS PHOTO OF ME ON STAGE
)L-R) WITH JEFF CAPRI AND SANDY HACKETTRobert Klein was honored with an event at the museum, where there were posters of Milton Berle, Jerry Lewis, Joan Rivers and all the other people I had the honor of working with. One of the highlights for me besides headlining two of the shows on Saturday and Sunday was finally meeting comedian Jeff Capri, the son of the very first comedian who ever hired me to write for him, the great Dick Capri ,who left us so recently at 93 years of age. I also got to re-connect with Sandy Hackett the son of the legendary Buddy Hackett. He and Jeff were doing a show together.
VINTAGE POSTER IN THE BB MUSEUM
ROBERT KLEIN LEANING ON THE WALL AND WATCHING HIS DOC WITH EVERYONE ELSEIt was a great time and I’m sending a big shoutout to Robin Kauffman from the Borscht Belt board, and comic/booker Alejandro Morales, who just announced that he’s moving to Chile!
PICK UP ON THE PICK UP WITH PETE DAVIDSON, EDDIE MURPHY AND KEKE PALMERNext time you’re home with nothing to do, and you wanna see Pete Davidson be hilariously funny in a starring role opposite Eddie Murphy and Keke Palmer, just go to Amazon Prime and look for The Pickup. It’s an action-comedy heist film where Pete and Eddie play two mismatched armored truck drivers who get involved in a crazy, wild, dangerous situation when a routine cash pickup goes awry thanks to Keke Palmer, who plays a very interesting role. Especially in the opening! So great to see Pete doing so well and on his way to becoming a Dad!!!
I’ve known Pete since he was a teen and used to come do my late night show at The Comic Strip, when I was co-hosting with Jordan Rock. I did Sunday and Monday nights, and Jordan did Tuesday and Wednesday! Pete would come in with Jordan and was funny from the jump. Then he got taken under Nick Cannon’s wing, and wound up on SNL for 8 seasons. He’s always been a great guy, and I’ll never forget when he introduced me to someone important to him by saying, ” This is Jeffrey Gurian, a guy you can trust!!!” To me that’s the most important thing someone can say about you!!!
The film also features Eva Longoria playing Eddie’s wife and Andrew “Dice” Clay playing the armored car owner/dispatcher! I hold the honor of being one of the only people ever to write for “Dice” and he says it openly cause he’s that kind of guy!!!
WITH PETE AT THE STRIP 12/20/11
PETE AND JORDAN ROCK-3-26-12
WITH PETE AT THE PAUL VIRZI SPECIAL HE PRODUCED WITH BILL BURR-8-13-17
WITH THE AMAZING KEKE PALMER
TAKING AWAY A HEADACHE FROM “DICE” OUT IN LA IN 1998 AT THE ICONIC MEL;S; DINER
WITH“ “DICE” UP AT SIRIUS XM HOLDING THE PHOTO OF US FROM 1998PLAYING A BAD MAGICIANI got hired to play a failed magician in an online commercial! Luckily I had a moustache collection and a derby, … cause you never know when you might need such things!!! Click the link to watch!
I think that’s enough for this column. More coming soon. In the meantime follow Jeffrey on Instagram at @jeffreygurian and on TikTok at @jeffreylgurian and I’ll see you out there Iin the clubs!!! And if you have any fun ideas or would like him to be in your show or project, you can reach Jeffrey at jeffrey@jeffreygurian.com
The post COMEDY MATTERS ROUND-UP WITH NICK KROLL, MARC MARON, JIM GAFFIGAN, MIKE BIRBIGLIA, HASAN MINHAJ, JIM GAFFIGAN, JEFF GARLIN, BORSCHT BELT COMEDY AND LOTS MORE!!! appeared first on Jeffrey Gurian.
May 31, 2025
COMEDY MATTERS ROUNDUP WITH NICK KROLL, BILL BURR, PAULY SHORE, JOE DEROSA, TODD BARRY, NORE DAVIS, MARINA FRANKLIN, CHUCK ZITO, PATRICE BENEFIT, AND SO MUCH MORE!!!
L-R – NAPOLEON EMIL, CHRIS MILLHOUSE, NICK KROLL , REGINA DECICCO, MIKE FEENEY, JAMES MATTERN AND YOU KNOW WHO IN FRONT BACKSTAGE AT CITY WINERY!!!
NICK KROLL DOES CITY WINERYChris Millhouse brings great talent to City Winery as evidenced by his recent show I attended with all the comedy stars shown above. He performs but doesn’t host, and often has uber-host James Mattern do the hosting honors. James always hosts all the shows for Chris Distefano and I assume he will be there when Chris does MSG on September 11th.
It was one hilarious set after the other and to top it off Nick Kroll closed out the show with such a killer set filled with very different and unique humor. I couldn’t even begin to describe it but that’s what Nick does because he’s so creative. The audience was really excited to see him as were the other comics on the show. Make sure to check out the 8th and final season of “Big Mouth” on Netflix! And celeb photog Marcus Russell Price was there to immortalize the evening and was the one who took that group photo above! Shortly after, he visited the Comedy Matters crib and we did our own unique shoot which you will see shortly!
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ANNUAL PATRICE BENEFIT AT CITY CENTERFor the 12th year in a row, comedy exec. Maureen Taran and Bill Burr have brought over 2,000 people together at City Center to celebrate the life of the great Patrice O’Neal who left us way too young at only 41 years old. For those of us lucky enough to have known Patrice he was a trip!
I had the honor of being the third co-host on The Black Phillip Show, a radio show we did on XM radio before it became Sirius XM radio. It was me, Dante Nero and Patrice and we had a blast. That show touched a lot of hearts and minds and to this day, as recently as two weeks ago, I still get guys coming up to me to thank me for my input on the show. This phone call came from Patrice the first night we did the show together. If you listen till the end you’ll see that he called me at 4:05 A.M. to tell me how much he liked the show and suggested that we should do a show together. Truly one of my greatest honors!
I had such a unique relationship with Patrice and everyone involved knew it. At Patrice’s funeral, his wife Von came over to me and said “Patrice really loved you.” It was sad but definitely one of my greatest honors. Patrice was so much more than a comedian, To me he was a comedy philosopher!
WITH PATRICE AND DANTE NERO; #2-WITH MY GIRL JACQUI; PHOTO#3- WITH MY GUESTS, AND DREW BOOGIE,That kind of response from Patrice didn’t come easy as any comic can attest to who went up against him, or got on his bad side. He and I never had any kind of adversarial relationship. It was pure love. As one of the only white guys that was ever honored for Black History Month ( true fact see the photo of the invite!) for creating comedy workshops for inner city kids, Patrice came to Gotham to inspire the people in the workshop.
PHOTO #1-THE INVITE TO BLACK HISTORY MONTH EVENT HONORING ME; PHOTO #2- MY LAST PHOTO WITH PATRICE IN 2011 THE YEAR HE LEFT USRich Vos was the perennial host of the event at City Center and he was sharp as ever. No one escapes his barbs! All phones went into Yondr bags so there was no photos to be had. Needless to say everyone killed. Vos opened with about 15 minutes. Cipha Sounds was missed and was not here this year on the ones and twos. Sean Patton was the first to hit the stage, and he did great, followed by Rosebud Baker who had an interesting take on abortion, and several jokes on her husband Andy Haynes, another great comic who I last saw when we did Subway Takes the same day with Kareem Rahma.
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Nimesh Patel had a strong set as usual after Vos introduced him as an Uber driver. He was followed by D.C. Benny who is a great story teller. Years ago I did a story telling show he was producing at a place on Houston Street called Madame X.
Greer Barnes is a force unto himself. He’s just so talented, not only with his jokes, but with the sound effects, impressions and accents he mimics so perfectly. His African accent totally kills, and when we see each other all we do is laugh. He has such a great spirit and was one of the few comics on the show that showed up at the after-party at The Stand where it’s held every year.
While at the after-party Bruce Hills, multi-year President of JFL Montreal, the largest and most prestigious comedy festival in the world, and most recently inducted into the Canada Comedy Hall of Fame, and even more importantly a friend of mine for 30 years, asked if he could take a photo with me, and honored me by saying I was “an icon!” At JFL’s 40th year festival, Bruce and I took a photo with my JFL VIP pass from 1992, which I treasure and is still in pristine condition.
WITH GREER BARNES
(L-R) ZOE FRIEDMAN, JODI LIEBERMAN, JEFFREY@JEFFREYGURIAN.COM, AND LIZ HILLS
WITH JFL PRES. BRUCE HILLSBut I digress! Back to the benefit, Vos announced a special guest and Stavros Halkias came out and did a really strong set which I was glad I got the chance to congratulate him on at the after-party. I love being able to congratulate comics when they kill, cause we all need to be reaffirmed. It’s an important thing to do, and not enough people do that. He lost 40 pounds on Zepbound which he described as a very disrespectful medicine. I think it was he who had the great line, “If you wait too long to come out to your grandmother, you’re going to have to do it every time you see her! “ Genius!!!
And then Bill Burr came out and destroyed the crowd as he usually does. First he went after Vos by sarcastically saying, “ Did you see all his jewelry? He looks very successful!” Every so often Bill laughs during his set like he can’t believe what he just said. I know him for so long. I know him since the days he had red hair!
PHOTO #1-BACK IN 2005; PHOTO #2- MONTREAL 2011And as long as I know him I still don’t know when he’s kidding with me. At the after-party at The Stand I was sitting alone eating at a table when I heard someone call my name. It was Club Soda Kenny, my longtime friend, who’s Bill’s security. I left my food and went over to say hi and share a hug and Bill was at the table sitting with Jodi Lieberman, Zoe Friedman, Maureen Taran and producer Masavia Greer.
I said hello to all, hugged Jodi, Zoe and Maureen who thanked me for coming every year, and I said hello to Bill but I didn’t sit down at the table. I just stood there and finally to break the ice I leaned over and said to Bill, “Congratulations on doing Broadway. How long were you in rehearsal? And he said something like “ I’m just relaxing and there you are crouching over to do an interview. You’re always working!” But he said it in a Bill Burr kind of way where you think he’s pissed off. So I said, “ I was just making conversation cause I think it’s so great that you’re on Broadway.” And then he paused, and smiled and said, “ I rehearsed for about six weeks!” So I knew he was just busting my balls like he likes to do.
Then he went off on my outfit cause I was wearing a leather blazer and he asked me if I was in The Ramones, and kept coming up with old rock references that I reminded him of. I told him that I always try and wear something he can make fun of! At that point, I was afraid to ask him for our usual annual photo, so I’m using some of mine from the past! (LOL)
JOE DEROSA SPECIAL AS A FILMSometimes I make a note in my phone when I meet someone I think is talented. I first met Joe DeRosa November, 2007 at Carolines during a comedy competition.
At the end of April, NY Comedy Club owner Emilio Savone texted me to let me know that Joe was premiering his latest special “ I Never Promised You A Rose Garden” at The Angelika Film Center as a film, and as usual he wrote “ It’s not an event unless you’re there!” , which always makes me feel special! ( No pun intended!)
The special is described as “ an all new hour of hopeless comedy derived from the dark mind of Joe DeRosa. Joe’s bleak outlook on society will actually bring joy to you in the dire climate we’re all living in.”
The description didn’t do it justice as it is a remarkable piece of work. So well thought out, so original, and so well rehearsed that it sounded like it was the first time he was saying what he said. I told him so at the theater, and had my chance to say the same thing to the audience on the mic at the Q&A that followed moderated by comic Nick Alexander, but the next day I felt I had to text him again. I wrote “Hey Joe, I hope you don’t mind me repeating myself but last night was so special. So clever, so intelligent, so well thought out and so well pereformed in such a natural way, not like a performance. Just needed to tell you that.” I got a heartfelt response.
A lot of Joe’s fans in the audience recognized me from my wild dancing debut in Joe’s music video for his band Salsa Windfall called “Mouth On My Money.” If you haven’t seen it yet this is your chance! We plan to do more!!!
And the after party at Joey Roses, ( Joe’s sandwich shop) was awesome and I ran into my old friend Pauly Shore there who was in town to perform at The Stand the next night which I of course attended! When Pauly saw me the first thing he said after introducing me to people as his agent, was “Baby and Max” which was a romantic comedy feature script I wrote that Pauly loved and wanted to star in back in the day! Just the fact that he still remembered that was so awesome! Maybe it could still happen!!!
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PAULY SHORE DOES THE STANDThe main room was packed with Pauly fans. He even did a little of “The Weasel” for them from his days on MTV, and the line-up was very cool with Todd Barry, one of the only guys who makes me laugh out loud, my old pal from Playboy Comedy Cort McCown who was in from LA, and new Dad Mark Normand who I’ve never seen have a bad set. Pauly was so funny and often does very self-deprecating humor, especially about his career. He said he wants to do more movies so maybe “Baby and Max” still has a chance! Noted film producer Noel Ashman has it listed on IMDb as being in pre-production! All we need is the money!!! $$$
TODD BARRY
CORT MCCOWN
MARK NORMAND
GOTHAM ALL STARSAlways a good time at Gotham and I even have my own table #69, but it doesn’t have a number on it like all the other tables do, cause people keep stealing it! My dear friend Marion Grodin is always a great host and gets people in the mood to laugh, and this time it was Kyle Grooms in from Florida who it’s so great to see looking so healthy after he conquered his health problems! He always gets me when he describes how it was growing up in the hood with the name “Kyle”. As he says “ No one’s afraid of a guy named Kyle!”
Marina Franklin is always just so funny and so honest on stage and thankfully conquered her own health problems. She even announced her age which is a brave thing to do!
I was really excited to see Tommy Brennan who absolutely killed, and who I hadn’t seen since we filmed our pilot at Gotham called “The Raw Side of Comedy” which hopefully will finally find a home some day. Tommy was one of the stand-outs in the pilot!!!
COMEDY SHOUT-OUTSShout out to Tommy Gooch who saved the show by being so funny at Famee Furlane, a private Italian club out in College Point that I attended with entrepreneur Gus Podias!
WITH TOMMY GOOCH AND ENTREPRENEUR GUS PODIASShout out to Nore Davis my old pal from Comic Strip days who I saw was performing at West Side Comedy Club so I made sure to get over there. Nore is also nothing but honest on stage as he discussed being in professional therapy, ( as opposed to street therapy!) dealing with grief and actually managed to make his Mom’s funeral funny. He’ll be shooting yet another special, currently unnamed, this coming November at a venue in Brooklyn.
And lastly a huge shout out and congratulations to Chuck Zito, the baddest guy on the planet, on his amazing documentary “ Chuck Zito – An American Story” that I was honored to be invited to by Chuck himself. More than 400 people showed up to the AMC Theater in Westbury for a one hour red carpet and screening of the film. I got to re-connect with actor/writer/producer Gary Pastore, actor/writer/director Willie Demeo who I know since he was in my film “I Am Woody” about a mob boss obsessed with Woody Allen, and the legend himself Bo Dietl who has the very first reserved table at Rao’s.
Chuck spent many years as the Pres. of the Hell’s Angels before he went on to become a famous actor in films like Carlito’s Way, The Rock, Homefront and TV shows like Law and Order, Entourage and his amazing turn as the head of the Italian gang in HBO’s hit show OZ. Chuck and I have been friends since he was bodyguarding Charlie Sheen so many years ago, and I brought that photo with me of the day we met. So wonderful that his 93 year old mother was there to enjoy the honor with him.
Screenshot
WITH CHARLIE SHEEN AND CHUCK ZITO; WITH CHUCK ON THE RED CARPET; CHUCK ZITO FILM POSTER AND LOOK WHO’S IN IT!!!I actually have more but all good things must come to an end as they say! I’ll put them in the next column. In the meantime follow me on Instagram at @jeffreygurian and feel free to share this with a friend, and please consider subscribing! Due to the length : If the newsletter is truncated in an email, readers can click on “View entire message” and they’ll be able to view the entire post in their email app.
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COMEDY MATTERS ROUNDUP WITH NICK KROLL, BILL BURR, PAULY SHORE, JOE DEROSA, TODD BARRY, NORE DAVIS, MARINA FRANKLIN, CHUCK ZITO, PATRICE BENEFIT, AND SO MUCH MORE!!!
May 27, 2025
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L-R – NAPOLEON EMIL, CHRIS MILLHOUSE, NICK KROLL , REGINA DECICCO, MIKE FEENEY, JAMES MATTERN AND YOU KNOW WHO IN FRONT BACKSTAGE AT CITY WINERY!!!
NICK KROLL DOES CITY WINERYChris Millhouse brings great talent to City Winery as evidenced by his recent show I attended with all the comedy stars shown above. He performs but doesn’t host, and often has uber-host James Mattern do the hosting honors. James always hosts all the shows for Chris Distefano and I assume he will be there when Chris does MSG on September 11th.
It was one hilarious set after the other and to top it off Nick Kroll closed out the show with such a killer set filled with very different and unique humor. I couldn’t even begin to describe it but that’s what Nick does because he’s so creative. The audience was really excited to see him as were the other comics on the show. Make sure to check out the 8th and final season of “Big Mouth” on Netflix! And celeb photog Marcus Russell Price was there to immortalize the evening and was the one who took that group photo above! Shortly after, he visited the Comedy Matters crib and we did our own unique shoot which you will see shortly!
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ANNUAL PATRICE BENEFIT AT CITY CENTERFor the 12th year in a row, comedy exec. Maureen Taran and Bill Burr have brought over 2,000 people together at City Center to celebrate the life of the great Patrice O’Neal who left us way too young at only 41 years old. For those of us lucky enough to have known Patrice he was a trip!
I had the honor of being the third co-host on The Black Phillip Show, a radio show we did on XM radio before it became Sirius XM radio. It was me, Dante Nero and Patrice and we had a blast. That show touched a lot of hearts and minds and to this day, as recently as two weeks ago, I still get guys coming up to me to thank me for my input on the show. This phone call came from Patrice the first night we did the show together. If you listen till the end you’ll see that he called me at 4:05 A.M. to tell me how much he liked the show and suggested that we should do a show together. Truly one of my greatest honors!
I had such a unique relationship with Patrice and everyone involved knew it. At Patrice’s funeral, his wife Von came over to me and said “Patrice really loved you.” It was sad but definitely one of my greatest honors. Patrice was so much more than a comedian, To me he was a comedy philosopher!
WITH PATRICE AND DANTE NERO; #2-WITH MY GIRL JACQUI; PHOTO#3- WITH MY GUESTS, AND DREW BOOGIE,That kind of response from Patrice didn’t come easy as any comic can attest to who went up against him, or got on his bad side. He and I never had any kind of adversarial relationship. It was pure love. As one of the only white guys that was ever honored for Black History Month ( true fact see the photo of the invite!) for creating comedy workshops for inner city kids, Patrice came to Gotham to inspire the people in the workshop.
PHOTO #1-THE INVITE TO BLACK HISTORY MONTH EVENT HONORING ME; PHOTO #2- MY LAST PHOTO WITH PATRICE IN 2011 THE YEAR HE LEFT USRich Vos was the perennial host of the event at City Center and he was sharp as ever. No one escapes his barbs! All phones went into Yondr bags so there was no photos to be had. Needless to say everyone killed. Vos opened with about 15 minutes. Cipha Sounds was missed and was not here this year on the ones and twos. Sean Patton was the first to hit the stage, and he did great, followed by Rosebud Baker who had an interesting take on abortion, and several jokes on her husband Andy Haynes, another great comic who I last saw when we did Subway Takes the same day with Kareem Rahma.
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Nimesh Patel had a strong set as usual after Vos introduced him as an Uber driver. He did some questionable political material, which he played off by saying his wife was Jewish, a fact which he confirmed to me at the after-party, and he was followed by D.C. Benny who is a great story teller. Years ago I did a story telling show he was producing at a place on Houston Street called Madame X.
Greer Barnes is a force unto himself. He’s just so talented, not only with his jokes, but with the sound effects, impressions and accents he mimics so perfectly. His African accent totally kills, and when we see each other all we do is laugh. He has such a great spirit and was one of the few comics on the show that showed up at the after-party at The Stand where it’s held every year.
While at the after-party Bruce Hills, multi-year President of JFL Montreal, the largest and most prestigious comedy festival in the world, and most recently inducted into the Canada Comedy Hall of Fame, and even more importantly a friend of mine for 30 years, asked if he could take a photo with me, and honored me by saying I was “an icon!” At JFL’s 40th year festival, Bruce and I took a photo with my JFL VIP pass from 1992, which I treasure and is still in pristine condition.
PHOTO#1-WITH GREER BARNES;PHOTO#2- (L-R) ZOE FRIEDMAN, JODI LIEBERMAN, J.G. AND LIZ HILLS; WITH COMEDY EXEC LEGEND BRUCE HILLS (Greer Barnes and Bruce Hills photos courtesy of Marcus Russell Price)But I digress! Back to the benefit, Vos announced a special guest and Stavros Halkias came out and did a really strong set which I was glad I got the chance to congratulate him on at the after-party. I love being able to congratulate comics when they kill, cause we all need to be reaffirmed. It’s an important thing to do, and not enough people do that. He lost 40 pounds on Zepbound which he described as a very disrespectful medicine. I think it was he who had the great line, “If you wait too long to come out to your grandmother, you’re going to have to do it every time you see her! “ Genius!!!
And then Bill Burr came out and destroyed the crowd as he usually does. First he went after Vos by sarcastically saying, “ Did you see all his jewelry? He looks very successful!” Every so often Bill laughs during his set like he can’t believe what he just said. I know him for so long. I know him since the days he had red hair!
PHOTO #1-BACK IN 2005; PHOTO #2- MONTREAL 2011And as long as I know him I still don’t know when he’s kidding with me. At the after-party at The Stand I was sitting alone eating at a table when I heard someone call my name. It was Club Soda Kenny, my longtime friend, who’s Bill’s security. I left my food and went over to say hi and share a hug and Bill was at the table sitting with Jodi Lieberman, Zoe Friedman, Maureen Taran and producer Masavia Greer.
I said hello to all, hugged Jodi, Zoe and Maureen who thanked me for coming every year, and I said hello to Bill but I didn’t sit down at the table. I just stood there and finally to break the ice I leaned over and said to Bill, “Congratulations on doing Broadway. How long were you in rehearsal? And he said something like “ I’m just relaxing and there you are crouching over to do an interview. You’re always working!” But he said it in a Bill Burr kind of way where you think he’s pissed off. So I said, “ I was just making conversation cause I think it’s so great that you’re on Broadway.” And then he paused, and smiled and said, “ I rehearsed for about six weeks!” So I knew he was just busting my balls like he likes to do.
Then he went off on my outfit cause I was wearing a leather blazer and he asked me if I was in The Ramones, and kept coming up with old rock references that I reminded him of. I told him that I always try and wear something he can make fun of! At that point, I was afraid to ask him for our usual annual photo, so I’m using some of mine from the past! (LOL)
ME AND BILL THROUGH THE YEARSJOE DEROSA SPECIAL AS A FILMSometimes I make a note in my phone when I meet someone I think is talented. I first met Joe DeRosa November, 2007 at Carolines during a comedy competition.
At the end of April, NY Comedy Club owner Emilio Savone texted me to let me know that Joe was premiering his latest special “ I Never Promised You A Rose Garden” at The Angelika Film Center as a film, and as usual he wrote “ It’s not an event unless you’re there!” , which always makes me feel special! ( No pun intended!)
The special is described as “ an all new hour of hopeless comedy derived from the dark mind of Joe DeRosa. Joe’s bleak outlook on society will actually bring joy to you in the dire climate we’re all living in.”
The description didn’t do it justice as it is a remarkable piece of work. So well thought out, so original, and so well rehearsed that it sounded like it was the first time he was saying what he said. I told him so at the theater, and had my chance to say the same thing to the audience on the mic at the Q&A that followed moderated by comic Nick Alexander, but the next day I felt I had to text him again. I wrote “Hey Joe, I hope you don’t mind me repeating myself but last night was so special. So clever, so intelligent, so well thought out and so well pereformed in such a natural way, not like a performance. Just needed to tell you that.” I got a heartfelt response.
PHOTO #1- JOE D. ON THE BIG SCREEN; PHOTO #2- NICK ANGELO MODERATING WITH JOE D.A lot of Joe’s fans in the audience recognized me from my wild dancing debut in Joe’s music video for his band Salsa Windfall called “Mouth On My Money.” If you haven’t seen it yet this is your chance! We plan to do more!!!
And the after party at Joey Roses, ( Joe’s sandwich shop) was awesome and I ran into my old friend Pauly Shore there who was in town to perform at The Stand the next night which I of course attended! When Pauly saw me the first thing he said after introducing me to people as his agent, was “Baby and Max” which was a romantic comedy feature script I wrote that Pauly loved and wanted to star in back in the day! Just the fact that he still remembered that was so awesome! Maybe it could still happen!!!
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PAULY SHORE DOES THE STANDThe main room was packed with Pauly fans. He even did a little of “The Weasel” for them from his days on MTV, and the line-up was very cool with Todd Barry, one of the only guys who makes me laugh out loud, my old pal from Playboy Comedy Cort McCown who was in from LA, and new Dad Mark Normand who I’ve never seen have a bad set. Pauly was so funny and often does very self-deprecating humor, especially about his career. He said he wants to do more movies so maybe “Baby and Max” still has a chance! Noted film producer Noel Ashman has it listed on IMDb as being in pre-production! All we need is the money!!! $$$
(Clockwise) PAULY SHORE; MARK NORMAND, CORT MCCOWN AND TODD BARRYGOTHAM ALL STARSAlways a good time at Gotham and I even have my own table #69, but it doesn’t have a number on it like all the other tables do, cause people keep stealing it! My dear friend Marion Grodin is always a great host and gets people in the mood to laugh, and this time it was Kyle Grooms in from Florida who it’s so great to see looking so healthy after he conquered his health problems! He always gets me when he describes how it was growing up in the hood with the name “Kyle”. As he says “ No one’s afraid of a guy named Kyle!”
Marina Franklin is always just so funny and so honest on stage and thankfully conquered her own health problems. She even announced her age which is a brave thing to do!
I was really excited to see Tommy Brennan who absolutely killed, and who I hadn’t seen since we filmed our pilot at Gotham called “The Raw Side of Comedy” which hopefully will finally find a home some day. Tommy was one of the stand-outs in the pilot!!!
MARINA FRANKLIN AND TOMMY BRENNANCOMEDY SHOUT-OUTSShout out to Tommy Gooch who saved the show by being so funny at Famee Furlane, a private Italian club out in College Point that I attended with entrepreneur Gus Podias!
WITH TOMMY GOOCH AND ENTREPRENEUR GUS PODIASShout out to Nore Davis my old pal from Comic Strip days who I saw was performing at West Side Comedy Club so I made sure to get over there. Nore is also nothing but honest on stage as he discussed being in professional therapy, ( as opposed to street therapy!) dealing with grief and actually managed to make his Mom’s funeral funny. He’ll be shooting yet another special, currently unnamed, this coming November at a venue in Brooklyn.
And lastly a huge shout out and congratulations to Chuck Zito, the baddest guy on the planet, on his amazing documentary “ Chuck Zito – An American Story” that I was honored to be invited to by Chuck himself. More than 400 people showed up to the AMC Theater in Westbury for a one hour red carpet and screening of the film. I got to re-connect with actor/writer/producer Gary Pastore, actor/writer/director Willie Demeo who I know since he was in my film “I Am Woody” about a mob boss obsessed with Woody Allen, and the legend himself Bo Dietl who has the very first reserved table at Rao’s.
Chuck spent many years as the Pres. of the Hell’s Angels before he went on to become a famous actor in films like Carlito’s Way, The Rock, Homefront and TV shows like Law and Order, Entourage and his amazing turn as the head of the Italian gang in HBO’s hit show OZ. Chuck and I have been friends since he was bodyguarding Charlie Sheen so many years ago, and I brought that photo with me of the day we met. So wonderful that his 93 year old mother was there to enjoy the honor with him.
WITH CHARLIE SHEEN AND CHUCK ZITO; WITH CHUCK ON THE RED CARPET; CHUCK ZITO FILM POSTER AND LOOK WHO’S IN IT!!!I actually have more but all good things must come to an end as they say! I’ll put them in the next column. In the meantime follow me on Instagram at @jeffreygurian and feel free to share this with a friend, and please consider subscribing! Due to the length : If the newsletter is truncated in an email, readers can click on “View entire message” and they’ll be able to view the entire post in their email app.
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The post COMEDY MATTERS ROUNDUP WITH NICK KROLL, BILL BURR, PAULY SHORE, JOE DEROSA, TODD BARRY, NORE DAVIS, MARINA FRANKLIN, CHUCK ZITO, PATRICE BENEFIT, AND SO MUCH MORE!!! appeared first on Jeffrey Gurian.
April 13, 2025
COMEDY MATTERS ROUNDUP WITH NIGHT OF TOO MANY STARS, AMY SCHUMER, SUSIE ESSMAN, JEFF GARLIN, ROBERT SMIGEL, WINTER FILM AWARDS, MIXTAPE SHOW, AND SO MUCH MORE!!!
(L-R) Nikki Glaser, Chris Rock, Drew Barrymore, Jim Gaffigan, Adam SandlerNIGHT OF TOO MANY STARSThere’s only one guy I know who could draw so many stars to an event and that man’s name is Robert Smigel.
ON THE RED CARPET WITH THE MAN, … ROBERT SMIGEL! It was a benefit for autism and the inspiration for the event is Robert’s son Dan who is now 20, which means that Robert has been putting on this event for 20 years. He was joined on the tight red carpet where I was shooting video interviews by his wife Michelle, and I told him it was a real testament to the respect his peers have for him that all these stars came out! Robert is exceedingly humble and did not bring Triumph because he said the night was not about him! Triumph and I happen to have a long history!
The event was at The Beacon Theater and was totally sold out. More of the Too Many Stars were John Stewart who was the host, Chris Rock, Adam Sandler, Paul Rudd, Susie Essman, Jeff Garlin, Keegan-Michael Key, Drew Barrymore, Nikki Glaser, Jim Gaffigan, Ronny Chieng, Alex Edelman, and SNL stars Sarah Sherman, Marcello Hernandez and James Austin Johnson. Sam Morril was expected but didn’t feel well so he wasn’t able to make it. As it was there were just too many stars!
I was also so glad to see Bellanca Smigel, Robert’s sister who I first met when she was one of the producers of Nick Kroll and John Mulaney’s hit Broadway show ” Oh, Hello”! I was also honored to know Robert and Bellanca’s Dad, the late Irwin Smigel, known as “The Father of Cosmetic Dentistry”! Such a great guy! Among other things he invented Supersmile and besides being a producer, Bellanca is also the President of the company!
I made my own tip sheet which is always helpful to have but red carpets are always so crazy that when you finally get to do the interview you just wing it, and ask whatever you remember. The person from the outlet next to me was asking questions like ” If you were stranded on a desert island with all these comedians who would you kick off”? Most of the celebs were very polite trying to answer that, but it just made me wonder why you would even waste people’s time asking them something like that.
I got to speak to everyone who did the red carpet. First up was Keegan-Michael Key, who’s probably so glad his middle name is Michael or else he’d just be Keegan Key. it was so great to see him again because it had been a while. He’s so fun to talk to and totally radiates positive energy!
And it was great catching up with Jeff Garlin who I also hadn’t seen in quite a while, and was an Exec. Producer on Curb for all 12 seasons. He looked great and was actually looking very fit! He wound up doing a funny scene with Paul Rudd, and Susie Essman who plays Jeff’s wife on Curb. They played a Too Many Stars version of Pictionary. I asked him if anyone ever calls him Jeffrey , because I prefer Jeffrey to Jeff and he said his family often calls him Jeffrey! He confirmed he was comedically influenced by Jimmy Durante as a little kid! Anyone besides me remember who that was???
HAVING A BLAST WITH JEFF GARLIN
The last time I saw Paul Rudd I reminded him of the time he subjected himself to “Baby Bird” to raise money for charity where he allowed a random audience member to chew up some food and spit it into Paul’s mouth. I felt sick watching and Paul said he felt sick for days, and would never do that again! (LOL) What a trooper!!!
WITH PAUL RUDDAlex Edelman and I reminisced about the old days at The Comic Strip when I recalled him telling me he was going to Scotland for a month to perform a one man show at the Fringe Festival, and now he’s won a Tony and an Emmy.and in 2024 was named to the Time 100 list of the world’s most influential people. As Larry David might say, … “Pretty, pretty good!!!”
Susie Essman and I always laugh because I probably have more photos with her than anyone else except my family. So when she hit the red carpet she knew what was in store! Susie is the best and was in the radio pilot I created up at Sirius XM called “The Happiness Show” along with Colin Quinn and Lisa Lampanelli! The concept was comedians talking about what makes THEM happy in their own lives aside from making their audiences happy. She will appear in this column again further down at an event she did at the 92NY with Carol Leifer!
WITH MY FRIEND SUSIEAnd it’s always so special for me to see Amy Schumer. She looked great and so happy to be there. We go back to her beginning in comedy, and had a good laugh about her little son Gene taking a photo of her which she posted on Facebook. We got to chat about Life and Beth and how Michael Cera was patterned on her husband Chris, and I got to tell her how much I admire her honesty as a human being. She always puts it all out there for the world to see and I think that’s awesome! She also had a really funny stand-up set on the show!
WINTER FILM AWARDS WAS A BLASTI got to host the 13th annual Winter Film Awards at the close of the Winter Film Festival, at the beautiful Empire Room at 230 Fifth Avenue and it was honoring filmmakers from many countries with 87 films being considered. The event is produced by Steffanie Finn and George Isaacs who have been doing it all these years and I got to co-host with model/actress Aesha Waks which was a real treat!
WITH THE WONDERFUL AESHA WAKS! MY JACKET BLENDS PERFECTLY WITH THE WALL PAPER!!! LOLOL
ON THE RED CARPET BEING INTERVIEWED WITH AESHA WAKSThe night before I got in some stage time at Adam Strauss’ fun new comedy space called Room 52 on East 52nd Street. I went to check it out and he was kind enough to invite me to do a set which was perfect timing. It’s a cool room upstairs in an apartment building, and it was a great line-up of talent, except for one guy with a weird name who thought it was cool to make fun of other comics! You need to be funny in order to do that! Actually you don’t need to do that at all!!!
KAREEM AND JOHNNY ON THE LOOSE AT THE KRAINE THEATERKareem Rahma of the hit IG series “Subway Takes” ( my “Take” already has 855K views) and “Keep The Meter Running”, and his sometime comedy partner Johnny Gaffney have a deal with the Omeleto Network for their show “Tonight’s Special” shot in Kellogg’s Diner in Brooklyn, and they celebrated with a special showing at The Kraine Theater on East 4th Street! Thanks to all-around producer/ringleader John Hammond I got to host that evening as well, as I did previously when they had a showing at the Village Theater on 2nd Avenue. Packed crowd, really fun party night with a cool short film by Boni Mata!
WITH JOHN HAMMOND
KAREEM AND JOHNNY ON SCREENAnd another cool space I discovered this month was Fear City Comedy, down on the Lower East Side thanks to owner Jonezy Karona. I went down and caught comic Mika Lorenzo hosting who also produced the show, and who shot the Winter Film Awards with me, and Jared Waters from my pilot The Raw Side of Comedy that we shot at Gotham, and my old friend comic/actress/writer/host Brittany Brave who was in from Miami! Mika also produces shows on the regular under the name Random Access Comedy, and gets great line-ups as proven by Harrison Greenbaum taking the time to come and do a set on this show.
MIKA LORENZO ON STAGE
JARED WATERS AND BRITTANY BRAVESHORT BITS AND CONGRATULATIONSOn some of these I’m a bit late, but I need to send these shout-outs cause as they say “Better late than never”! To Aliza Schlesinger on her Prime Video special ” A Different Animal”; to Michelle Buteau for her show “Survival of The Thickest” and for hosting the Billboard Music Awards on Fox with Jelly Roll. Tyla and Coldplay; to Jay Pharoah for his FOX game show “The Quiz With Balls”; to former SNL’er Chris Redd for his Netflix series “Resurrected Rides” from the makers of the show ” Pimp My Ride”; the Peacock doc “SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night” which was amazing and revealed how the show nearly ended after Season 11; to Rosebud Baker for her first Netflix hour filmed at The Comedy Cellar called “Rosebud Baker: The Mother Lode” with two sets filmed, one when she was still 8 months pregnant and the other after she had the beautiful baby I saw in Florida being wheeled by husband Andy Haynes; to my old Comic Strip buddy Jermaine Fowler for being added to the 5th season of Hulu’s “Only Murders In The Building”; and lastly to my old pal Joe Piscopo, former SNL’er and current host of his WABC radio show “Sundays With Sinatra” for his memoir “Average Joe – The Memoirs of a Blue-Collar Entertainer!” Major congrats to them all!!!
FRANK MORANO FOR CITY COUNCILSpeaking of WABC radio, my pal Frank Morano, the host of The Other Side of Midnight, which is the top rated overnight show in the country, stepped down from his NYC broadcast although he’s still heard nationally and internationally, in order to bring some semblance of order to our city and run for City Council on Staten Island. There’s even an article about him tn today’s NY Post. Frank is a great person and a wonderful family man who would be great for this city! Vote for him if you’re eligible to vote on Staten Island.
WITH ( HOPEFULLY) OUR NEXT COUNCILMAN FRANK MORANODROP-INSYou know you’re doing something right when Jim Gaffigan decides to drop by your club! Such is the case with Gotham Comedy Club which is run so well thanks to owners Chris and Steve Mazzilli. Jim drops by often when he wants to try out new material.
And Rodney’s is bringing them in too. When I got the notice that Ronny Chieng would be at Rodney’s I made sure to stop by to support and catch up. Ronny is a superstar and was also at Night of Too Many Stars but he didn’t do the red carpet! I love watching him perform because he has such a unique delivery!!!
And such a great surprise when I went to see Royale Watkins’ Mixtape Show at Gotham on a Sunday night, and saw my buddy D.L. Hughley hit the stage. They never announce their line-up so I just happened to show up on the right night! And I think it’s the only time I ever saw DL not in a suit! He still looked great cause he always has style, but he was dressed casually, and was funny as ever! D.L. and I have big plans, and that’s all I’ll say about that!!! (Except to say that he’s an amazing human!!! )
I saw one guy laughing so hard he fell out of his seat! I’ve been a fan of Mixtape since Royale co-hosted it with Anthony Anderson so many years ago. Mark Curry also dropped by to do a set on both shows, and it was great to see long-time producer Kristen J. Eddy still with the show!
WITH MY MAN D.L. 
DL KILLIN’ IT ON STAGE
(L-R) MARK CURRY, D.L. HUGHLEY AND ROYALE WATKINSSTREET COMEDY AT ZABAR’SWhen producer Jeremy Moses calls I answer the phone. Last time I saw him I was a guest on his Amazon show Sports Talk with comedian/host Eitan Levine. Actually I was on twice, not because I know anything about sports, but because we had such a fun time the first time I was on the show that they asked me back!
This time he and Eitan are filming a show in the street in front of different well-known venues, and this first episode was being done in front of Zabar’s the iconic location on the Upper West Side. I showed up and we really drew a crowd as I tasted different delicacies from Zabar’s and gave my honest opinion, while Zabar’s family members stood by watching along with the rest of the crowd. As I recall we had a spirited discussion about Babka and if you don’t know what that is you’re missing out!!! AND I got a gift bag when I was done!!!
WITH EITAN LEVINE AND MY GIFT BAG AT ZABAR’SSUSIE ESSMAN AND CAROL LEIFER AT 92YI got to see Susie twice in 10 days and it’s never enough! (LOL) She was moderating a conversation with comic/actress/author Carol Leifer who’s in my book “Make ‘Em Laugh” on the history of The Comic Strip the club she was passed at back in 1977 along with her friend Paul Reiser.
The story Paul told me for the book was that he was dating Carol and the next thing he knew she was dating Jerry Seinfeld, who was the host at Catch and The Comic Strip at the time. Jerry may have even passed them both. That dating thing caused kind of a rift between he and Paul until their first New Year’s Eve at the club when as the story was told to me, Jerry put his hand out to Paul and said ” Let’s put this Carol thing behind us”, and they wound up becoming best friends. That was before Carol decided she preferred the company of women! I’m not giving anything away, she says it openly all over the internet.
CAROL LEIFER AND SUSIE ESSMAN
WITH SUSIE ESSMANCarol had had quite a career writing for Curb, Seinfeld, Larry Sanders, SNL and other shows besides being a stand-up, and she wrote a book called ” How To Write A Funny Speech.” She and Susie swapped stories and it was as fun and entertaining as you would expect it to be. 92NY always brings in the big names!
When they brought me backstage afterwards to see Susie, Carol was signing books and Susie had a surprise reunion with a childhood friend that really touched her heart! I talked to her husband JImmy until she was done reminiscing with her friend. Btw, Susie has one of the best meories I’ve ever seen. She remembered that her Dad Leonard had been my doctor, and she even remembered something he taught me! He was a wonderful man, and I was very impressed with her memory. It shows that unlike many people, … Susie listens when people talk to her!
It makes me sad to bring another Comedy Matters column to a close, but I’d have to include a meal break if it got any longer! So follow me on Instagram at @jeffreygurian, on You Tube at youtube.com/comedymatterstv and I hope to see you out there in the clubs!!!
The post COMEDY MATTERS ROUNDUP WITH NIGHT OF TOO MANY STARS, AMY SCHUMER, SUSIE ESSMAN, JEFF GARLIN, ROBERT SMIGEL, WINTER FILM AWARDS, MIXTAPE SHOW, AND SO MUCH MORE!!! appeared first on Jeffrey Gurian.
January 28, 2025
COMEDY MATTERS ROUND UP WITH NIKKI GLASER, NICK KROLL, KAREEM RAHMA, ALI WONG, NATE BARGATZE AND SO MUCH MORE!!!
NIKKI GLASER KILLING IT HOSTING THE GOLDEN GLOBESNIKKI CRUSHES THE GLOBESI remember back in 2013 when I was invited to attend an episode of MTV’s Nikki and Sara Live, a weekly late-night comedy program featuring the latest news in pop culture, co-hosted by Nikki Glaser and Sara Schaefer. It ran for two seasons. I don’t think Nikki could have guessed that 13 years later she’d be hosting the Golden Globes, one of the most prestigious award shows on TV.
WITH SARA SCHAEFER AND NIKKI GLASER AT NIKKI AND SARA LIVE-2013After her amazing performance at the Tom Brady Roast, which I wrote about in my last column, it was announced that Nikki would be hosting the 82nd Golden Globes on Jan. 5th, 2025. I got excited just hearing that news, and sent her congratulations right away. She wrote back to me and not only thanked me for the write-up, but she commented on how accurate I was in what I wrote, because there’s often “so much misinformation out there.” She said, … “Thank you so much for the write up! That was so nice and accurate! … you nailed every detail. I really appreciate it.”
And she wished me a very happy 25th anniversary for 25 years doing this column, which I didn’t even realize until Seth Herzog told me he was celebrating 20 years of his show Sweet, and it made me remember that I started Comedy Matters in 1999. Twenty-five years goes by pretty fast!
Well she totally crushed her hosting gig at The Globes and I’m willing to bet they ask her back next year. Aside from looking amazing in many glamorous outfits which you’ll see below, her opening monologue was just so funny. Every joke killed, starting with referring to it as ” Ozempic’s biggest night”, and saying she looks out in the audience at some of the hardest working actors in show business, “and by that I mean your servers!!!” ( Huge laugh!)
But more importantly the audience loved her, and that’s not an easy task. People have tried comedy before in that gig, and it’s not easy performing to such big stars. Big stars don’t often laugh but Nikki brought the right energy and made them laugh hard! And again it didn’t hurt that she looked so glamorous. She was one of them. It’s easier to take jokes about yourself by one of your own!
ALL OF NIKKI’S LOOKS
It makes me feel good to see people reaching the heights they deserve. Besides covering Nikki and Sara, I recall also covering her performance in an all female comedy show with Rachel Feinstein, Amy Schumer and Marina Franklin. I went with the late Richie Tienken, owner and founder of The Comic Strip.
Nikki’s stand-up special “Someday You’ll Die”, which was on pace to be the the top streaming special ever on MAX, was up for an award which she wound up presenting to Ali Wong for her special “Single Lady” by way of presenter Nate Bargatze who had the highest grossing comedy tour last year bringing in over 86 MILLION DOLLARS!!! That’s crazy!!! And a lot of jokes and hard work too!!! Nate was my personal guest on Sirius XM radio back in 2014 when I was on air with Ron Bennington and Fez Whatley on the Ron and Fez Show.
(L-R) NIKKI GLASER, RACHEL FEINSTEIN, YOU KNOW WHO, AMY SCHUMER, MARINA FRANKLIN
NATE BARGAZTZE HIGHEST GROSSING TOUR OF 2024NICK KROLL BACK ON BROADWAY IN “ALL IN”I didn’t know what to expect when I went to see “All In: Comedy About Love” by Simon Rich and directed by Alex Timbers who not only also directed Nick Kroll and John Mulaney’s hit show ” Oh, Hello”, which is where I first met him, but also directed “Alex Edelman: Just for Us” in 2024, and two of John Mulaney’s specials, “Kid Gorgeous” at Radio City in 2018, and “Baby J” in 2023, among several other important shows. Alex is the man!
All In is one of the hottest shows on Broadway right now in a limited run at the Hudson Theater on West 44th Street. With an all-star revoving cast that changes periodically it started out with John Mulaney, Fred Armisen, Richard Kind and Chloe Fineman from SNL. Jimmy Fallon’s coming on board Jan. 28th thru Feb. 2nd and Nick Kroll started on Jan. 14th and will be there thru Feb. 2nd.
The night I attended with Ms. Multiverse/model/reality star Stephanie Almeida, it was Nick, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Andrew Rannells, and Aidy Bryant and I have to say that Simon RIch is a comedic genius! It was nothing like I expected. There were four chairs set up on the stage and the actors came out to music, holding bound scripts, and acted out absurdist stories that were so funny that Simon Rich gained a new fan, namely ME!!! Very few people do absurdist humor which is my favorite kind of humor. Monty Python fans would absolutely LOVE this show!
My love for absurdism is what led me to create GNN, Gurian News Network, featured on Kroll Show in the “Too Much Tuna” sketch, whose logo is ” All The News That’s Fit To Dance To”. It also led to the book “Man Robs Bank With His Chin – And Other Unusual Stories Missed By Mainstream Media.”
The book actually sports cover blurbs from the late Richard Lewis of Curb fame, Colin Jost from SNL, and Nick Kroll himself who wrote ” Jeffrey Gurian asked me for a blurb for his book, … and this is it!” And a foreword by Scott Dikkers the creator of The Onion!!!
The stories in All In are hard to explain, as is true with most absurdist comedy, but I’ll try my best. One was of a 2 year old boy talking to his baby sister who was less than a year old and didn’t speak yet, lying in a nearby bassinet who lost her beloved stuffed animal. They came to the conclusion that “Nana couldn’t be trusted, because she tried to pawn off a different stuffed animal than the one she lost, telling her it was the original” and that Dada and Mama were supposed to be in charge anyway. not Nana.
Another story involved two pirates in a dialogue, which was Nick and Andrew Rannells, where almost every sentence started with ” Aaargh” the sound that all pirates are known for making! (LOL) I was wondering if speaking like that could hurt Nick’s voice, but he told me afterwards it was nothing. I think his voice-over work, doing over 75 character voices in his hit Netflix show Big Mouth certainly helped with that. Big Mouth is going into it’s 8th and final season!
Nick is definitely one of the most multi-talented comedy performers on the scene today, as he showed in a story about Death ( Nick) coming to a talent manager’s door, to take the man to meet his maker, in a story called “New Client”, but instead the talent manager played by Andrew Rannells charms death into becoming a client by complimenting his presence and his voice. Nick plays it perfectly.
When the audience cleared out, we got to congratulate Nick in the Ambassador Lounge, where he greeted a bunch of friends, family and his team. I asked him how much rehearsal time he had, and he said “Three days!” He developed all those characters in just three days! Nick is so talented and always so gracious! The show ended with a well-deserved standing ovation!
And as a final treat for the audience, after the show ended Nick came out as The Grim Reaper!
NICK ON STAGE WITH ANDREW RANNELLS
WITH NICK IN THE AMBASSADOR LOUNGESUBWAY TAKES TAKES OVER NEW YORKKareem Rahma is a creative genius! He comes up with such unique ideas and makes them a phenomenon on social media. First was his show “Keep The Meter Running” where he’d get into a taxi and ask the driver to take him to the driver’s favorite place, and leave the meter running while they spend time together. The show was a big winner with 8.2 million views on TikTok and over 400K followers on Instagram. I’m sure it cost him a small fortune!
I first met Kareem through NY social media legend New York Nico, who is a phenomenon himself with 1.5 MILLION followers on IG, and 1.6 MILLION followers on TikTok. Both really great guys and I first met Nico when he texted me out of the blue and just said ” Dude you’re hilarious!” We started corresponding and he invited me to the Tribeca Film festival premiere of his film ” Out of Order” starring Kareem, who played a character in search of a bathroom in NYC.
Nico recently released his first book, “New York Nico’s Guide to NYC”, and I was there for the book signing where I picked up as many books as I could get!
WITH NEW YORK NICO WHO MOSTLY DOES NOT APPEAR IN PHOTOS IN HIS SOCIAL MEDIAAnyway I haven’t been on the subway since 2019, pre-pandemic because I’m not a big fan of being stabbed or set on fire, but when Kareem invited me to do an episode of Subway Takes, I couldn’t say no! And I’m so glad I didn’t. The concept is that Kareem asks you what your “take ” is on a particular topic of your choice, and he tells you whether he’s on board with you or not in a spirited discussion, while riding on the subway to no particular destination!
It was a hoot, … to use an expression from 1810, … and my take was, ” If someone hands you their phone and asks you to take a photo of them with someone important to them, and you know you take horrible pix, just say “No” and let someone else do it, rather than ruining what might be a once-in-a lifetime opportunity. Kareem agreed and as of today it’s got over 730K views on Instagram! Some people think they suddenly turn into Steven Spielberg and start crouching down low or shooting very high instead of just holding the phone straight and taking the photo! Easy! Full video on my IG page @jeffreygurian
WITH MY MAN KAREEM ON THE ACTUAL SUBWAY! CAN’T BELIEVE IT!!!SCARLETT JOHANSSON AT THE 92YThe 92Y consistently gets top talent in comedy and also in film. I felt privileged to attend an evening where Scarlett Johansson interviewed 95 year old Academy award nominated actress June Squibb with a screening of the film that June starred in, her first starring role in a 70 year career. A film called Thelma!
SCARLETT JOHANSSON IN CONVERSATION WITH JUNE SQUIBBIn Thelma, June plays a 91 year old grandma who was scammed out of $10,000. and instead of taking it as a loss, she decides to track down the scammer and get her money back. It takes her on a journey across LA in a stolen motorized wheelchair! It’s based on a true story and I don’t want to give away the ending except to say that you’ll absolutely LOVE this film.
Scarlett will be directing June in her directorial debut in the upcoming film Eleanor The Great, about a 90-year-old Floridian woman who strikes up an unlikely friendship with a 19-year-old student in New York City. They had a great rapport on stage, and it was a charming evening. June did not come across as a 95 year old and it was very inspiring to see how energetic she was, and what great energy she brought to the evening. She had a wonderful sense of humor!
Scarlett of course was great and I was hoping to see her husband Colin Jost, but if he was there I didn’t see him! After the interview they screened the film and the audience loved it! Then Scarlett escorted June off the stage to thunderous applause.
SWEET KEEPS GETTING SWEETERSeth Herzog is a force! Every show he books has such interesting talent. His most recent show at Michael Ginsberg’s Chelsea Music Hall, which is a great space btw, featured co-host Alex Moffat, and guest performers T.J.Miller, Iris Bahr, and Michael Cruz Kayne who did such a unique performance and the kind of thing that inspires me to write about it. It’s very rare to have a unique delivery and comedic point of view and Michael has both.
At one of his shows, I even got to meet Matt Friend the amazing comic/impressionist with almost 1 MILLION followers on IG who actually does his impressions to the stars he’s imitating which takes more courage than I can imagine. In one recent post he did Nick Cage to his face, Liev Schreiber, Paul Giammatti, Jeff Goldblum, Obama, and he even sang with Michael Buble, and sang great! Truly amazing!!!
SETH HERZOG AND CO-HOST ALEX MOFFAT
ALEX MOFFAT, SETH HERZOG AND T.J. MILLER
MICHAEL CRUZ KAYNE MAKING A POINTMENTAL HEALTH AND COMEDYThese are two things that don’t sound like they should go together because you have to be a little crazy to go into comedy in the first place! That being said comedian Robert Punchur, who has a background in psychology and is the COO of Very Good Comedy, hosted a show called Live, Laugh and Learn at The Grisly Pear midtown, in conjunction with Brad Richards who is a psychiatric and behavioral interventionist and court-appointed care manager, and I was honored to be the Keynote Speaker on the importance of comedy in helping to restore people to mental health!
I had recently hosted an event for NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness so I was psyched to do this, plus perform in the comedy show that followed along with Marion Grodin, Aric Grooms, Daniel Laitman, and Steve Cohen all of whom opened up and shared honestly about their battles with different forms of mental and emotional challenges. Many mental health professionalS from all over the country attended including Tom Parker and Michael Groat from The Lindner Center of Hope in Ohio! It was a very successful event!
TRACY CARNAZZO AT SID GOLD’SMade sure to stop by one of Tracy Carnazzo’s shows at Sid Gold’s Request Room on West 26th Street, a very intimate but fun space. Tracy always has good shows and is so funny, and I also got to see Gastor Almonte who was really great and very original in his humor and delivery. Always so glad to see someone who’s been around but new to me!
WITH TRACY CARNAZZO AT SID GOLD’SFAILLA AND FRIENDS LIVE AT RODNEY’SJimmy Failla is one of the hardest working men in comedy. I love his story starting out as a taxi driver and winding up as regular with his own show on FOX TV. FOX Nation sent a crew up to Rodney’s to film the premiere of JImmy Failla’s new show “Failla and Friends” and I came to support cause Jimmy’s shows are guaranteed to be good, espcecially with the line-up he had.
It was reliable heavy-hitters GIna Brillon, Charles McBee and Ryan Reiss, all of whom probably hosted at Gotham Comedy Club as much as Jimmy did. Walking into the green room when it’s all your old friends is always fun, and it was a great night that was taped for TV! Can’t wait till the next one!!!
JIMMY FAILLA KILLING IT ONSTAGE
(L-R) JIMMY FAILLA, GINA BRILLON, CHARLES MCBEE AND RYAN REISSAnd I was back at Rodney’s on Dec. 29th to perform in Geno Bisconte’s birthday show, a date we both share! Geno’s another one who always brings the heat and he did!
GOTHAM COMEDY CLUB POST HOLIDAY PARTYI would be remiss not to include something about the amazing party that Chris and Steve Mazzilli throw every year, AFTER the holidays. Great food, great music, great people, and it’s something I look forward to every year. So many great comics were there but I was glad I got to tell Rich Aronovich how much I enjoy his crazy dancing videos on Instagarm at @richisfunnny.
I’m envious of the fact that he can dance wildly with abandon in any circumstance, in stores, at the bank, and even in front of the NYPD wearing the most outrageous outfits, and no one blinks an eye. Personally, … I think they’re afraid to look! I had to ask him if he ever warns anyone beforehand, and he doesn’t. He said he tried it a few times and it ruined the energy. I can just watch one after the other and laugh out loud all by myself! Truly amazing, and if you haven’t already seen them you must!!!
WITH RICH ARONOVICH AT THE GOTHAM PARTY- (RICH IS FUNNY, … AND HE IS!!!)COMEDY MATTERS GIRL OF THE MONTHDue to popular request I’m bringing back the Comedy Matters Girl of the Month, awarded to a girl in the audience of a comedy show that has the best sense of humor and love for comedy! This month it’s Shu Lan!
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November 26, 2024
Comedy Matters Round-Up With Highlights of NY Comedy Fest, Judd Apatow, JB Smoove, Jiaoying Summers, Gilbert Tribute and so much more!!!
WITH JUDD APATOW AT HIS SHOW “JUDD APATOW AND FRIENDS” AT THE BEACON THEATERI have to start this column with a shout-out to “The Queen of NY Comedy” Caroline Hirsch and Andrew Fox for this amazing 20th year of the New York Comedy Festival. Over 100 shows in 5 boroughs. They actually ran out of boroughs or there would have been more!!!
Next I have to thank their team Louis Faranda, head of booking, who’s been with Caroline the entire time, Greg Charles head of publicity, Carolyn Gitomer and Jonny Moran who work with Louis to make sure that everything runs smoothly. And it does!!!
CHRIS DISTEFANO – NEW YORK’S NEXT MAYOR?????In the order of shows I attended, I started with Chris DiStefano’s “Hat Trick” which kicked off the festival’s first night. Chris did three shows in a row at each of New York Comedy Club’s venues. Six P.M. for the first show on East 4th Street, 7 P.M. for the 2nd show on 24th Street, and 9:30 at the new location on the West side where Stand Up NY used to be. I love their huge green room cause it’s big and they always have candy!
MY INTERVIEW WITH NEW YORK’S NEXT MAYOROwner Emilio Savone is amazing and now has five locations! We often reminisce how he started out as a ticket seller at The Comic Strip when I was writing the book on that legendary venue, that features a foreword by Chris Rock. I have some amazing news about Chris D. that I promised to keep secret until they’re ready for the world to know. So don’t even ask cause I won’t tell. But I do think he’ll make a great Mayor!!! ( Watch the video above!)
I’m good at keeping secrets. I kept a secret for Jerry Seinfeld for three months when he was doing his Netflix special at The Comic Strip. He asked me not to write about where he was doing it, and it would have made a great scoop but I don’t do things like that! I would never ruin a relationship for a scoop! Not even for Jason Scoop!!! (LOLOL)
WITH YOU KNOW WHO!!!LOTS OF GARBAGE AT CHELSEA MUSIC HALL!!!There were so many shows to choose from it was really hard to make a choice but the next night I went to see Are You Garbage, an audience participation show at one of my favorite venues, Michael Ginsberg’s Chelsea Music Hall where Seth Herzog does his Sweet shows. It was H. Foley, and Kevin Ryan with guests Sam Morril, and Mike Cannon. There may have been more but I had to leave to catch Judd Apatow and Friends at the Beacon Theater.
(L-R) Sam Morril, Kevin Ryan, and H.Foley in “Are You Garbage?”JUDD APATOW AND FRIENDS SELL OUT THE BEACONIt was absolutely no surprise that the show was sold out for the man I refer to as “The King of Hollywood”, but with my All Access Pass I was able to hang backstage until luckily one single seat happened to open up. What’s special about Judd is that with all of his success people who have never met him will be glad to know he’s still a humble guy! Success has not gone to his head!
He opened up with a really strong probably 20 minute set, brought out the always funny Ricky Velez, who has a Judd-produced special, then he introduced Loudon Wainwright Jr. who did about 5 songs, and then Mike Birbiglia who I caught up with backstage and who did pieces from his new show “The Good Life” which he’ll be performing this coming March! Can’t wait! Mike has done more one man shows than anyone I know since Jackie Mason!
THIS SPEAKS FOR ITSELF
JUDD SENT ME THIS PHOTO LABELED “HANDSOME MEN”! LOL
Among other things Mike talked about his Dad’s stroke, which was made even more difficult because his Dad is a neurologist, so he knows everything they are doing for him, and maybe even more than they do. When I first met Ricky and Mike they didn’t have kids. Now Mike has a 9 year old daughter and Ricky has a six year old son! And speaking of kids, Judd’s daughter Iris was there and brought a ton of her friends! So special for a Dad. That’s the kind of stuff I like to talk about. There was a professional photographer backstage that got great photos of everyone. I on the other hand did the best I could! (LOL) Don’t judge me! (LOL)
JUDD AND FRIENDS ON STAGE
JUDD AND FRIENDS BACKSTAGEJudd made it extra special for me by agreeing to participate in a really big project looming on the horizon that I’m involved with, along with D.L. Hughley, Jeffrey Ross, J.B. Smoove who also said “Yes”, Chris DiStefano, Colin Quinn, Mark Normand, Joe List and several more big names!
IRIS APATOW IS SECOND FROM LEFT
MIKE BIRBIGLIA AND RICKY VELEZ
WITH MIKE BIRBIGLIA
WITH JUDD APATOWKATIE BOYLE ROCKS NYCCNext on my journey was Katie Boyle’s special taped at New York Comedy Club on 24th Street. I love her accent and as you’ll see in the video below, … the audience did too!
NATALIE ORTEGA IS WICKEDLY FUNNYNatalie Ortega’s Funny Girls was another stand-out performance for me again back at Chelsea Music Hall. It was an all women’s show but Natalie really stood out for me. She’s a natural and a real multi-talented comedy force. She has a role as Nessa Rose in Wicked on Broadway but she told me her great love is stand up comedy and she’s really good. She brings a level of excitement to the stage that’s palpable. I was so impressed I couldn’t wait to tell her. And I waited till right after her original song titled ” I Want To F**k Pete Davidson”! That’s really the name of the song. It’s not a cover. It’s original! I asked her if she knew him and she said “Not yet!” I can’t wait to tell Pete!
NATALIE ORTEGA ON STAGE
CLASSY NATALIE IN A GOWNBEFORE WE GET STARTEDRyan Reiss had a big honor during the festival. It was one of the main shows at The Hard Rock Hotel which was the base of operations for the festival. Six years of hard work led to a documentary film in which he starred called “Before We Get Started.” It was about the world of warm up comics. At one special point in the film Ryan gets to pitch his idea for a TV show to Howie Mandel, which was a long time dream of his. You actually get to see it happen on camera!
RYAN REISS AND PETE DEMAS
RYAN REISS PITCHING TO HOWIE MANDELEvery TV show has a warm up comic. It’s a very different form of comedy than just coming out and doing your act for 15 minutes. The star of the show depends on you to get the audience psyched and ready for their appearance. Ryan and producer Pete Demas showed the film to a packed, sold-out room at The Hard Rock, and it was fantastic! A must see for anyone who loves and appreciates how hard it is to do comedy. And long time warm-ups like Tom Kelly, Gary Cannon, and Joey Kola, currently with the Drew Barrymore Show, who’s doing it for 31 years were all in the audience.
COMEDY GIVES BACK LUNCHEONBack in 2011, Zoe Friedman, Amber J. Lawson and Jodi Lieberman did a wonderful thing in creating Comedy Gives Back. It’s a non-profit that is basically the safety net for the comedy community by providing financial crisis relief, mental health and chemical dependency treatment. Many comics are struggling to make ends meet and the ladies held a luncheon at Gotham Comedy Club, which thanks to Chris Mazzilli always makes itself available for a good cause, to spread the word about their work.
(L-R) ZOE FRIEDMAN, AMBER J. LAWSON, AND JODI LIEBERMAN
ZOE WITH ALAN ZWEIBEL
WITH ALAN ZWEIBEL I got there early and had a chance to shmooze with the ladies and partake of their complimentary pizza lunch, until we were joined by Alan Zweibel, the man who gave me my start in comedy while he was a main writer up at SNL in the earliest days of the show. To this day he says he can’t get the image of “creamcheese on the ankles of elderly women who wore their stockings rolled down like bagels” which was a little film I made starring my grandmother that I brought up to SNL. It’s a story that has been told in the little doc they made about me in 2020. Some of the past recipients of CGB’s generosiyy were there to sing their praises. I also got to re-connect with Joanna Briley who once gave me the honor of being the opening act for the 2nd night of the Martin Luther King Comedy Fest in Bed-Stuy Brooklyn, a true honor for me!
THE LOVE FOR GILBERT GOES ONOne of the other big events of the festival was the tribute to Gilbert Gottfried at the Hard Rock. It was called “Celebrating Gilbert” and the screen said “Still Screaming”. HIs wife Dara hosted the sold out event and there was no chance I would miss this since Gilbert and I were friends since probably the late 70’s or early 80’s. We had a long fun history and I really loved that guy! In the early days at Carolines, he literally made me laugh until I was in physical pain with his squid material and absurd references! He would proudly claim that no one had more squid material than he did, as he tore a napkin into strips like the tentacles of a squid!!!!
CAROLINE HIRSCH ADDRESSING THE PANEL (L-R) FRANK SANTOPADRE, DARA GOTTFRIED, JUDY GOLD, SUSIE ESSMAN, AND RICHARD KIND
MY EARLIEST PHOTO WITH GILBERT CIRCA 80’S
DANCING WITH GILBERT 1992
GILBERT WEARING THE GLASSES I MADE FOR HIM FOR A FILM I WROTE FOR TV THAT HE STARRED IN!It was a spectacular event with people sharing stories of Gilbert and how unique he was, and also his reputation for being cheap. Truthfully the most exciting part for me was meeting his kids Lily and Max. I remember when they were born and now Max is 15 and Lily is 17. I knew Gilbert so long I was with him in the hospital when his appendix burst back in the early 90’s. I used to drive him home when he lived with his Mom. I once asked him if she “got him”, … if she knew he was “Gilbert”, … if she had any idea who he was, and he said “No!” To her he was just her son Gilbert!
After everyone on the panel shared their stories Frank Santopadre went out in the audience to speak to people like Chevy Chase, Robert Smigel, and other people who had known and worked with Gilbert. I was sitting in the very last row and I was dying to tell one of my many Gilbert stories. I didn’t know how I was going to get their attention though, and my heart was pounding.
I told myself if I didn’t do this I would never forgive myself and never get another chance, so I started nervously walking down the aisle towards the stage, and two women came up behind me encouraging me to share my story. I think they were from the festival. As I got close to the stage I got up the nerve to call out ” Frank, can I tell a story?” And Frank said “Jeff Gurian, ladies and gentlemen, and handed me the mic.” The story I told is below and Chevy Chase was sitting right in front of me as you can see in the video thanks to videographer Bob Sweeney, who filmed the whole event!
At the end of the event something very special happened. Bruce Hills who ran JFL Montreal for so many years came down with Nick Brazao who currently runs the programming at JFL to present Dara, Lily and Max with a huge sports jersey that says Gottfried 55! Not sure why it was so huge, but 55 is the year Gilbert was born!
WITH LILY GOTTFRIED
DARA, LILY AND MAX GOTTFRIED
DARA, LILY, BRUCE HILLS, NICK BRAZAO, AND MAX GOTTFRIED AND THE JERSEY!!!And the proverbial icing on the cake was when it came out on Page Six in the NY Post! ( With my photo no less!!! LOL)
VINNY GUADAGNINO BRINGS IT AT THE STANDI went to Vinny’s show truly not knowing what to expect. Many actors and people on TV think they can do stand-up comedy just because they’re used to being on camera. Most of the time it doesn’t work. Stand-up comedy is an art form all unto itself. It does not translate.
VINNY G ON STAGE
WITH VINNY GUADAGNINO
JIAOYING SUMMERS ON STAGEI was pleasantly surprised. Vinny is funny and I got a chance to tell him so after the show. He had no idea who I was so I don’t know if it meant anything to him, but I like to tell people when I think they’re doing something good. Creative people need to be re-affirmed! Also on the show was Jeffrey Asmus, and Jiaoying Summers who I also saw a couple of nights later at her own show at the Laurie Beechman Theater!
NEW FACES AT THE HARD ROCKMost of the big industry shows were held at The Hard Rock. Lots of new and not so new fun talent. I walked in when my friend Soo Ra was on stage. Also Natalie Cuomo was a stand-out who’s soon to be married to Dan LaMorte, but the winner of the NY’s Funniest was Jamie Wolf who I picked as well. I just hope he doesn’t seriously injure his neck doing the airline crashing thing! ( Inside joke!)
SOO RA ON STAGE
NATALIE CUOMO ON STAGE
WINNER JAMIE WOLF ON STAGEJ.B. IS DEFINITELY SMOOVEHadn’t seen JB Smoove in a while but he’s definitely one of my faves, so when I saw he was going to be at Town Hall I put it on my list of “Must-See” shows, and he definitely brought “the ruckus” as he’s prone to do! This was my final big show I covered at the festival!
I got there early with my assistant Jake Rothwell, and went right up to his dressing room. Backstage at Town Hall is huge and very difficult to navigate. To this day I always find it fascinating to see what goes on backstage. Maybe it’s because most people have no idea what it’s like. His dressing room was full of people and he was reviewing some notes when I came in. I had texted him to let him know I was coming because I don’t like to just show up with no notice.
He greeted me warmly and introduced me to his lovely wife, and then because he was busy prepping, I split to let him get ready, and told him I’d see him afterwards. He does such an entertaining show and the audience really loves him. I told him he brings joy to the stage, which is very special. Lots of people are funny but not everyone brings joy to the stage. We talked about his new game show on Amazon Prime called “Buy It Now” that just launched on Oct. 30th, where entrepreneurs get a chance to pitch their products, and the differences between that and Shark Tank.
We also reminisced about the loss of our mutual friend Richard Lewis, his cast-mate from Curb Your Enthusiasm, and JB’s great book ” The Book of Leon.” I was at the book launch with JB and Fifty Cent!
HAVING A BITE TO EAT WITH JB SMOOVE AT JFL MONTREAL 2010
WITH JB AND FIFTY CENT FOR THE BOOK OF LEON (SEE IF YOU CAN SPOT ME! LOL)It was so great to see the festival back again! Can’t wait for next year to do it again! That’s it for this column, but the next column is coming soon! If you liked it feel free to let me know at jeffrey@jeffreygurian.com
Follow me on Instagram at @jeffreygurian and I’ll see you in the clubs!!!
The post Comedy Matters Round-Up With Highlights of NY Comedy Fest, Judd Apatow, JB Smoove, Jiaoying Summers, Gilbert Tribute and so much more!!! appeared first on Jeffrey Gurian.
October 3, 2024
COMEDY MATTERS SUPER ISSUE CELEBRATES 25 YEARS, WITH NIKKI GLASER, KEVIN HART, CHRIS DISTEFANO, D.L. HUGHLEY, SETH HERZOG, KRYSTYNA HUTCHINSON, PAUL RUDD, ALEX MOFFAT AND SO MUCH MORE!!!
COMEDY MATTERS 25th ANNIVERSARYIt may sound strange, but it wasn’t until I started writing about Seth Herzog’s 20th anniversary of his show Sweet, and acknowledging what an amazing achievment that was that I started wondering how long I’ve been doing Comedy Matters, and realized that I had started it in 1999, which made 2024 it’s 25 year anniversary of covering the comedy scene.
It’s been a few months since my last post and if you read on you’ll see why, so I’m going to briefly fill you in on what’s been going on in NY comedy thru the eyes of Comedy Matters.
TOM BRADY ROAST IS HUGE FOR NIKKI GLASEREveryone totally crushed on the Tom Brady Roast. Kevin Hart was an amazing host and Roastmaster General Jeffrey Ross added to the hilarity with his never-fail killer jokes. That’s why he’s the Roastmaster General! Tony Hinchcliffe, Andrew Schulz, Tom Segura, Bert Kreischer, every single one of them killed. (Sorry if I left anyone out!!!)
But as a result of Nikki Glaser’s incredible performance roasting Tom at the very non-politically correct Roast on Netflix, she’ll be hosting the 82nd Golden Globes coming up on January 5th on CBS. I remember going to the premiere of the Nikki and Sara Live show on MTV back in 2013, when she had her own show with Sara Schaefer, and it’s so cool to see her reach superstardom. Nikki is a force. Her latest special on HBO, “Some Day You’ll Die” is up for an Emmy. She hosted and Exec. Produced F-Boy Island for three seasons which led to her hosting and Exec. Producing the spin-off “Lovers and Liars.” So major congrats to Nikki!
(L-R) BERT KREISCHER AND TOM SEGURA TEAM UP ON THE BRADY ROAST
WITH SARA SCHAEFER AND NIKKI GLASER AT MTV BACK IN 2013GROSSINGERS DOC DUE FROM BUNGALOW ENTERTAINMENT The popularity of the Netflix hit The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel had led to a resurgence of interest in that era, the 1950’s and particularly about what was known as The Borscht Belt which were the incredible hotels in upstate New York like Grossingers, The Concord, The Nevele, The Raleigh and so many more.
Bobby Friedman the head of Bungalow Entertainment is producing a documentary on Grossingers, and it’s owner Jenny Grossinger who paved the way for powerful women in the entertainment business. Grossingers was one of the best known hotels, that even had it’s own airstrip to fly in the big stars that performed there. I was interviewed for the doc because I was at Grossingers at two different points in my life, … as a kid singing solo in a famous Hebrew choir that sang at the hotels for the High Holidays, and again as an adult writing comedy for many of the big stars that performed there.
My interview was to be held at a comedy club which turned out to be, where else but Chris Mazzilli’s Gotham Comedy Club where so many amazing things take place. Judd Apatow was just there doing a special show about a week ago. The doc is being directed by award winning director Paula Eiselt who interviewed me, with the assistance of Bennett Elliot and Catherine Rierson from Bungalow Entertainment. Can’t wait for it to come out!
WITH AWARD WINNING DIRECTOR PAULA EISELT AT GOTHAM COMEDY CLUBUCB IS BACK WITH ASSSSCAT BETTER THAN EVERIn a never-ending list of things lost to Covid, UCB was one of them. Fortunately it’s back in a killer new location on 14th Street. Amazingly huge space. I attended the grand opening on Sept. 13th, and was pleasantly surprised to see Sasheer Zamata, Chris Gethard, and Zach Cherry among the improvisers. The host that night was James Austin Johnson from SNL. Improv may not be as reliable in terms of laughter as stand-up, but it may be the hardest thing in the world to do and they totally have my respect!
(L-R) Sasheer Zamata with a shaved head, James Austin Johnson in front and Zach Cherry in the rear with the glasses. Other names unfortunately are unknown to me! Send them in if you know!!!CELEB PHOTOG MARCUS RUSSELL PRICE PRODUCING SHOWSMarcus Russell Price is at every major comedy event shooting photos at the request of whoever is headlining the event. And it’s because he’s that good! I will always be indebted to him for shooting the two photos that appear below, at the exact second that I walked through the door at Carnegie Hall to congratulate Nick Kroll on his sold-out show, only to find out that due to Covid, they blocked everyone but me from coming backstage to see Nick, … even his family!
NICK KROLL FILMING ME AS I ENTERED HIS DRESSING ROOM AT CARNEGIE HALL WITH MIKE BERKOWITZ LAUGHING HYSTERICALLY!
MIKE BERKOWITZ REACTING TO SEEING ME ENTER NICK KROLL’S DRESSING ROOMNick thought it was so funny that he took out his phone and filmed it for Instagram. The only other person with him was uber-agent to the stars Mike Berkowitz of WME fame who was laughing hysterically at the fact that they didn’t let anyone in but me! When it comes to super agents you would be hard pressed to find a comedy superstar not repped by Mike. To name just a few, … Bill Burr, Hasan Minhaj, Nick Kroll, John Mulaney, Amy Schumer and John Oliver! To see Nick’s reaction when I walked into his dressing room click the link below!
So when I heard that Marcus was actually producing comedy shows at Lincoln Center there was no chance I was not going to attend. I was almost expecting him to perform but he just introduced the evening and each of the comedians. Both shows were great and sold out and I hope he decides to do more this coming year.
(L-R) MARCUS RUSSELL-PRICE, JOEY DARDANO, JORDAN ROCK, ROSEBUD BAKER AND THAT SAME GUY!
NEW YORK COMEDY CLUB TAKES OVER STAND UP NY LOCATIONEmilio Savone and Scott Lindner are killing the game. I think this makes five New York Comedy Club venues, and Emilio always makes sure that I get to attend every special event he does. They totally renovated the old Stand Up NY space on West 78th Street and had a grand opening. I particularly appreciated the huge green room they created downstairs where offices used to be. It’s always nice to have a cool place to hang before going up.
It was a star-studded line-up including two of my faves, Chris Distefano and Corinne Fisher who I absolutely love! Always so glad to see how well she’s doing. Her comedy partner in crime, Krystyna Hutchinson will appear in this column a bit further down. And I just got word as I’m writing this that Chrissy scored a Hulu special! Well deserved Chris!!!
WITH CHRIS DISTEFANO WHO JUST GOT A HULU SPECIAL
WITH CORINNE FISHER
WITH CHRISSY D AND EMILIOCOMEDY TIDBITSI’m involved in something that could be HUGE thanks to the two guys you see standing with me below. No more can be said, but if it happens it will involve many of my big-time comedy friends so when D.L. Hughley was at Levity Live in Nyack, I made sure to stop off and ask him in person if he would be kind enough to participate. He said I didn’t even have to ask and that of course he’d be involved! A true friend!!!
We reminisced about the time he took me out to dinner to make sure I ate!
I was at Sheba Mason’s show one night at Three Monkeys waiting to go on when I heard them announce a comedian to the stage and I thought maybe I heard wrong. I was pretty sure I heard them say Greg Giraldo Jr. What a nice surprise to find out it was Greg’s son. I’m sure he knew already, but I got to tell him what a great, talented guy his Dad was and afterwards sent him some photos of his Dad and I from back in the day!
WITH GREG GIRALDO JR. A VERY FUNNY YOUNG GUYWe lost a great actor and dear friend Tony LoBianco and at the funeral service at St. Patrick’s I ran into two other old friends, comedy legend Joe Piscopo and radio legend Frank Morano!
WITH TONY LOBIANCO
WITH JOE PISCOPO AND FRANK MORANOWound up on one of Victoria Arnstein’s shows with Mae Planert and saw what her husband Mark Normand did to her! (LOL) Such a nice girl! Major congrats to the expecting parents! I keep telling him how great it is to be a Dad!
WITH THE VERY FUNNY MAE PLANERT WHO IS “WITH CHILD” THANKS TO MARK NORMAND! Got on an AA flight to Minneapolis to be a Keynote Speaker to 500 doctors on Happiness and as I boarded the flight, the main flight attendant yelled out, ” Hey Jeffrey!” Turns out it was Soo Ra a very funny comedian who’s in my new TV pilot “The Raw Side of Comedy.” I knew she was funny but never knew she was also a flight attendant for the past 7 years! I made her take photos on the plane!!!
WITH SOO RA THE COMEDIAN/FLIGHT ATTENDANTZeuses Muses an entertainment company hired me to do a show with funny comic Anna Manis at The Red Room above New York Comedy Club’s 4th Street location. It’s like a speakeasy, and it was part of a national tour. Very fun show!
ON STAGE AT THE RED ROOM WITH ANNA MANIS“A Walk In The Park” the Woody Allen-ish type film I co-starred in with writer/director Noel Leon was chosen as an official selection for the NY Shorts International Film Fest slated to be shown on Oct. 14th, at the Cinema Village Theater, and if I’m lucky I’ll even get to see the final version beforehand! It’s a really sweet film about an unlikely friendship!
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HOLISTIC COMEDYEveryone’s heard the saying that laughter is the best medicine. Well because of my double career as a doctor (20 years on the Board of The Assoc. for Spirituality and Psychotherapy, 12 years on staff at NYU in Oral Medicine and Oro-Facial Pain, and 25 years as a Cosmetic Dentist) and an Amazon best-selling author with 8 books, three on Happiness, mindset and changing negative thinking to positive thinking, I’m getting asked to speak at holistic-type events bringing comedy into the mix.
In July I was the Keynote Speaker in Minneapolis at the Minneapolis Convention Center to about 500 doctors and the topic they gave me was ” Surviving A Career in Dentistry Using Positive Thinking and Humor”, and about a week ago I led a weekend workshop at the prestigious Omega Institute for Holistic Studies where Deepak Chopra speaks. Big honor! The topic they gave me was ” Heal Your Heart With Humor.” The middle photo below shows the line going out the door of people wanting to say hi and have me sign a book for them. I guess what I had to say resonated with them! (LOL) ( Humble brag!!!)
To help promote the event I went on WABC radio with my buddy Frank Morano on his hit show “The Other Side of Midnight”, i-Heart Radio with the amazing Xen Sams on her hit show “A Moment of Xen”, and had the honor of being the very first guest on Krystyna Hutchinson’s new podcast “The Voices In Our Heads” in her amazing new studio, and produced by my old pal Mike Coscarelli who’s producing a bunch of podcasts now. Krystyna of course is still doing “Guys We F**ked” with her comedy partner Corinne Fisher!
WITH FRANK MORANO
WITH KRYSTYNA HUTCHINSON IN HER BRAND NEW STUDIOEven better Krystyna asked me to release her TMJ cause she’s been getting jaw pain from grinding her teeth from stress, and that just happened to be my specialty at NYU.
Got to exchange “best-selling” books with Mick Jagger’s girlfriend Melanie Hamrick and tell her my Mick Jagger story!
SWEET CELEBRATES 20 YEARSI swear, … this is the last item. I can’t write anymore! Sweet is almost old enough to vote! Seth Herzog has achieved the impossible and kept a comedy show running for two decades. In next month’s column I will do a deep dive into the two shows he did at Chelsea Music Hall with owner Michael Ginsberg, but suffice it to say that both shows were amazing. I’m excited to say I’ll be doing Seth’s Halloween show on Oct. 22nd also at Chelsea Music Hall telling the scary story of my heart attack!
One show was on a Sunday night and the other was on the following Tuesday night. Huge crowds, and interviews were done for an upcoming documentary. Got to re-connect with Michael Ian Black, Todd Barry, who always makes me laugh hard with his sarcastic point of view, Jeaneane Garofalo who opened her set by giving away three pair of pants from a Target bag, and Richard Kind who improvised a song about people in the audience with Seth and Michael Ian Black. Michael and I co-wrote the very first interactive film for Sony back in 1992 called “I’m Your Man.”
In the Tuesday show it was Alex Moffat, Mark Normand, Paul Rudd, Justin Theroux, Richard Kind and more and I got to re-connect with the great Dave Hill who told me he loved my performance in Joe DeRosa’s video “Mouth On My Money”! Dave’s new one man show at the Soho Playhouse is called “Dave Hill-Caveman In A Spaceship”! Gotta see it real soon!!! Those photos in the next column coming very soon!!!
MICHAEL IAN BLACK AND SETH HERZOG
TODD BARRY
JANEANE GAROFOLO AND HER BAG OF PANTS
RICHARD KIND MID-SONGIF YOU’RE NOT TOO TIRED AFTER READING THIS WHOLE BLOG POST YOU CAN FOLLOW JEFFREY ON INSTAGRAM AT @JEFFREYGURIAN AND ON TICKTOK AT @JEFFREYLGURIAN SEE YOU SOON!!!
The post COMEDY MATTERS SUPER ISSUE CELEBRATES 25 YEARS, WITH NIKKI GLASER, KEVIN HART, CHRIS DISTEFANO, D.L. HUGHLEY, SETH HERZOG, KRYSTYNA HUTCHINSON, PAUL RUDD, ALEX MOFFAT AND SO MUCH MORE!!! appeared first on Jeffrey Gurian.
April 28, 2024
COMEDY MATTERS ROUNDUP WITH PATRICE O’NEAL BENEFIT AND AFTER-PARTY, BILL BURR, GARDEN OF LAUGHS, TRACY MORGAN, JIM GAFFIGAN, SAM MORRIL, AND SO MUCH MORE!!!
WITH THE AMAZING BILL BURR AT THE STANDTHE LOVE FOR PATRICE GOES ONNov. 29, 2011 is the day that Patrice O’Neal left us and left a big void in the comedy world. Especially for me. I had a very unique relationship with Patrice and was honored to be named by him as the 3rd co-host on The Black Phillip Show, on Sirius XM radio. It was Patrice, Dante Nero and me!
The first night we did the show together, he called me and left this message at 4:05 in the morning. He couldn’t wait to call me. Patrice didn’t get excited about a lot of things, but if you listen to this phone message which I have kept all these years, you’ll hear that he wanted to do a show just the two of us. He and I. Me and Patrice. Just the two of us.
Unfortunately like many things in show biz it never happened, but just the fact that he offered meant the world to me. Patrice didn’t say things just to be polite. We just had a real understanding, a real love and respect for each other. Von confirmed that with me at his funeral.
For the past 11 years, leaving out two years for the pandemic, comedy exec. Maureen Taran and Bill Burr have produced a benefit for Patrice’s family at City Center. Sells out every year. All the comics perform for free and all the money goes to Patrice’s family. His wonderful Mom, Georgia usually comes every year but she was not able to attend this year. But approximately 2300 other people were.
Rich Vos emceed as usual and did the great job he always does. He’s perfect for this event. I always think I should be performing but when I see the show I know my comedy doesn’t fit in. Cipha Sounds was on the ones and twos, also as usual, and brought Vos out to hip hop music, which made everyone laugh. Vos was dressed like Stallone from Rocky 3 and I believe it was he who said about Patrice, ” If he wasn’t so big he’d be rolling over in his grave.” And that set the tone for the rest of the evening.
Reggie Conquest was up first and came out to NInja Turtles music, as compared to Vos who came out to Meek Mill. Cipha has a good sense of humor! Reggie did great and Vos said about him that he had to go on first because ” his ankle bracelet goes off at 9 P.M.”
Then they announced a surprise guest and when Jim Gaffigan came out the place erupted! People went wild. Jim is beloved. He must have lost 6o pounds, and said about himself that he was “formerly a fat guy and how he’s just arrogant!” Wait till you hear the stories about Jim on the red carpet at Garden of Laughs, the very next day, … a few paragraphs down!
I hadn’t seen Marcello Hernandez from SNL perform before, so I was pleasantly surprised at how strong he was on stage. The guy is a beast. Bill Burr told me that Marcello has better material than he does! He came out wearing what looked like gym clothes which was fitting for the way he worked out on stage. Amazing! I actually laughed out loud, which is very rare for me. He was just so clever and did a thing comparing Meringue, Salsa and Bachata! (Three different Latin dances for you gringos!!!)
Bonnie McFarlane is one of the best writers in the biz and always so funny and clever. She came out to Back That Ass Up, and declared that if Patrice was still alive he’d probably be trans and married to Jim Norton. And speaking of her husband Vos she said, two or three years in to the marriage she realized he’s not playing the dumb guy character! No one could be that good an actor! (LOL)
Another surprise to me was Robert Powell who Vos mistakenly introduced as Robert Palmer. which the other comics kidded him about all night! The guy was hilarious! Absolutely hilarious!
Then they announced another surprise guest and it was Dan Soder who also got HUGE applause. In talking about Patrice, Dan mentioned The Lottery Show at The Comic Strip where Patrice along with guys like Bobby Kelly and Paul Mercurio would judge new comics to see if they could perform at The Strip. I often sat there with owner/founder Richie Tienken watching and laughing at the action, and Patrice was usually particularly brutal, but in a way you’d have to laugh. I just happen to have a video of one of those shows with Patrice, Bobby and Paul. And yes that’s a young Jordan Rock in the corner as the DJ!
Then Michael Che came out and said he hadn’t done stand up in a while which is understandable since his work load at SNL is so huge. He said he turned 40 and is starting to feel old. He also said he had a relative who was a runaway slave and became a clown. I think he said that was his inspiration to go into comedy, but I could be wrong! Not about the slave/clown thing but whether it inspired him or not.
And lastly like in baseball which I know nothing about, Bill Burr came out as the clean-up hitter and wrapped up the show. Bill is not only fun to listen to he’s fun to watch. And he’s a really great guy! We always have so much fun on any red carpet I see him on. I have photos of him hugging me from the time he had red hair till now! (Sometimes we switch sides!)
WITH BILL IN 2005
And the same as every year the after party was held at The Stand . Cris and Paul Italia go all out and serve great food and the place is packed with fun people and good vibes.
WITH BOBBY KELLY
WITH KEITH ROBINSON
WITH MICHAEL CHE
WITH MIKE VECCHIONE AND RICH ARONOVICH
WITH REGGIE CONQUEST
WITH EVENT PRODUCER MAUREEN TARANI got to hang with Ken Feder otherwise known as Club Soda Kenny who I first met thru Dice because he always does security for Dice, but he also does security for Bill Burr and other big stars. He’s always on the job and didn’t let Bill out of his sight for a minute. Even while we were talking and catching up, he had his eye on Bill. No one fucks with Kenny. Ex-NYPD and a big dude.
WITH A VERY SERIOUS LOOKING KEN FEDERBill actually wrote and directed a little film that Kenny stars in with Bobby Lee called “Soda” in which he plays a cop, … very realistically I might add! It’s on You Tube. Check it out!!!
GARDEN OF LAUGHS INSANITYIt had been a few years since the Garden of Laughs was held due to the pandemic and people’s fears of large gatherings but thanks to the Mazzilli brothers it was time to have it again! As usual I was covering the red carpet and it was a blast!
Jim Gaffigan was in a rare mood. He was joking around the whole time and I think it was connected to his dramatic weight loss. When I told him how good he looked he reminded me that he was married. He also said he was very good looking despite the fact that he has no pigment! At one point he pulled GOL host Steve Schirripa away while I was still talking to him, and made believe he was the reporter from People Magazine, and then he took my mic and was double fisting them until I reminded him he was married! (LOL)
Chris Distefano was also a hoot because Garden of Laughs is a charity that raises money for disadvantaged snd underprivileged children, so when he came to talk to me I had to remind him that he himself has underprivileged children, which made him laugh and agree that he does indeed have underprivileged children! It’s on my Instgram Reels if you want to see it @jeffreygurian.
Also on the red carpet I got to re-connect with Sam Morril who I hadn’t seen in quite a while. Sam and I reminisced a bit about how he started out years ago on my late night show at The Comic Strip where he said he’d sometimes sit for four hours waiting to go on. I told him he had 650,000 followers on IG, but Sam is so humble he said he wasn’t aware of that, but that it sounded like a good thing! (LOL)
WITH SAM MORRILAnd I got to see my old buddy Tracy Morgan. The publicists were being very choosy about who the stars spoke with but when Tracy saw me he told the guy we go way back, and he came over to chat about how lucky we both were to survive what we’ve been through. Tracy is very aware of how lucky he was to survive the terrible accident he was in, and I was lucky to survive a heart attack and a hospitalization with Covid Double Pneumonia. That video will be forthcoming along with Sam Morril’s.
WITH MY PAL TRACY MORGANLAUGHING BUDDHA FEST FOR $2,000.Jeff Lawrence’s Laughing Buddha has everything you could want if you want to be in the comedy world. They offer workshops, classes, even a boot camp and he and Darryn Stephanie Passarello work tirelessly to inspire and help young comics to develop. I’ve had the honor of performing on some of their shows at various clubs around the city. They’re at The Stand, Eastville, Rodney’s and just about anywhere that comedy is offered.
WITH DARRYN PASSARELLO AND JEFF LAWRENCE AT THE TRIADSo I was especially honored when they asked me to be a judge at their second annual comedy festival which was held at the beautiful Triad Theater on West 72nd Street. What really impressed me was the $2,000. prize they were giving away for the winner. That is truly a generous prize. The 2nd and 3rd runner-ups also got a few hundred bucksl
The winner was Eric Walsh, a funny comic I had seen before when I was judging a contest at Stand Up New York, who opens by declaring that his family has regular size necks, which only makes sense if you’ve seen him because he happens to be the proud owner of a very long neck! Second place went to Chris Tos and third went to Brendan Smith.
JEFF LAWRENCE WITH THE CONTESTANTS AND TED BARTON RIGHT OUT FRONT TO HIS LEFTAnd I got to meet the famous Bad Slava guy whose co-judged with me, and whose name is really Slava. He’s a comic named Slava Yaryshkin and I had been hearing his name for years. Any time someone wants to know where the open mics are located all around the city people would say ” Go to BadSlava.com and you’ll see all the mics in existence! But I had no idea it was named after a real guy! So I was really glad to meet him and spend a couple of hours together. And without consulting each other at all, we picked the same names as winners. I was hoping Ted Barton would win as he’s in my new pilot “The Raw Side of Comedy.” It was very close!
Jeff told me the goal for next year’s festival is to give away $5,000. to the winner. For a chance at 5K, I just might enter!!! (LOL)
BIG COMEDIC HUGS FOR ISRAELAvi Liberman is an LA comic who came to NY to produce a show called “Comedy Hug – A Benefit for Healing In Israel”. He did it at Gotham which was no surprise because the Mazzilli’s are always open to good causes and do many, many charity shows during the course of the year.
AVI LIBERMAN
GINA BRILLON
JIM GAFFIGANI wished I was on the show but I was glad to just be there covering it. And what a line-up they had. In no particular order it was Avi who hosted, and Gina Brillon, Jim Gaffigan, Mark Normand, Dean Edwards, Eli from Eli Comedy, and Dan Naturman who closed out the show but got there early and watched the whole thing.
DEAN EDWARDS WHOSE HAIR IS WILDER THAN MINE
DAN NATURMANI always like when someone does that. A lot of comics just show up for their spot, or don’t watch the other comics. To me it’s a sign of respect when you show interest in what your fellow comics are doing. Anyway it was a sold out show as you might expect with that line-up and I hope to be on the next one! Especially for such a worthy cause.
I also ran into Dan shortly after, at a great event called “Stand Up For Passion” produced and created by French comedian Arnaud Collery. It’s like an abbreviated Ted Talk event, but each speaker only gets 7 minutes and it’s always a fascinating show! One of his speakers was a French astronaut named Thomas Pesquet. And of course Dan is a co-host on the Comedy Cellar podcast which is always fun and an honor to do.
BEN CARSON IS A HERO IN MY BOOKThis has nothing to do with comedy but I was very excited to meet the great Ben Carson at a P.A.L. luncheon sponsored by John and Margo Catsimatidis at the Harvard Club! Ben is a retired neurosurgeon, who had 15,000 surgeries under his belt, to use a phrase from 1810, and was the very first neurosurgeon to separate Siamese or conjoined twins who were connected at the head. And he did it twice! Not on the same twins, … on other conjoined twins!
What makes it even more amazing is that he came from extreme poverty growing up with a single Mom with only a third grade education. But she stressed that her sons should be educated and Ben’s brother became a rocket scientist. A neurosurgeon and a rocket scientist. Pretty good for that situation, …which just goes to show you what you can accomplish in this country if you work hard. I was truly honored to meet him.
And he happens to have a great sense of humor and was very funny in his speech, so maybe this DOES have something to do with comedy!!! John Cats always gets great guests for his P.A.L. luncheons and on his show on WABC radio which he owns! John told me it’s now in, … I think, … 170 countries and all 50 states! What an accomplishment!
COMEDY BENEFIT FOR MENTAL ILLNESSA few years ago I flew to Chicago to perform at a meeting of AATH, which stands for the Association for Applied and Therapeutic Humor, which is a community of people who believe humor can help to regain health. I’m on the Board of a group called Laugh M.D. which brings comedy to people in hospitals and people in recovery founded by Frank Chindamo in L.A. the founder of Fun Little Movies, one of the very first to put entertainment on mobile phones.
AATH members include wellness professionals and people who use humor as a wellness strategy, and researchers who study the science of humor. While there I met Joan Accolla , a powerhouse and the founder of Healing Headbands a charitable foundation that also believes in using humor to heal. She and her partner Barbara Grapstein partnered up with NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness and they’re doing a major fundraiser for mental illness on Thursday May 23rd out on Long Island.
I have the honor of hosting and also on the show are Felicia Madison, booker and talent developer from West Side Comedy Club, and comic and Broadway star Rick Younger as well as local Long Island comic James Lennon. Hope you will come out and join us for a fun evening of food, music and laughter.
This is the site for tickets: https://www.healingheadbands.com/hhp-...
Hope to see you there and hope to see you again next month when the next Comedy Matters Roundup comes out! In the meantime when you have a moment follow us on Instagram at @jeffreygurian
The post COMEDY MATTERS ROUNDUP WITH PATRICE O’NEAL BENEFIT AND AFTER-PARTY, BILL BURR, GARDEN OF LAUGHS, TRACY MORGAN, JIM GAFFIGAN, SAM MORRIL, AND SO MUCH MORE!!! appeared first on Jeffrey Gurian.
March 25, 2024
COMEDY MATTERS SUPERSTAR ROUNDUP WITH CHRIS DISTEFANO, MARK NORMAND, ANDREW SANTINO, DAN SODER, D.L. HUGHLEY, RONNY CHIENG, JIAOYING SUMMERS, … AND EVEN MORE IF YOU CAN BELIEVE IT!!!
Mark had performed at The Beacon before, opening for Jerry Seinfeld but according to Mark it was a dream of his to headline The Beacon, and it just goes to show you that if you work really hard, your dreams may come true! He had two sold out shows and I was there to see it all happen.
WITH MARK AT THE BEACON
NIGHT 2- RETURNING THE POINT
MARK AND WIFE MAE PLANERTHe also had killer line-ups with Sean Donnelly hosting the first night and Jon Fish hosting for the second night. Got to re-connect with Andrew Santino who I hadn’t see since JFL in 2017, when he was up there with Jim Carrey promoting their great TV show “I’m Dying Up Here.”
MARK ON STAGE
(L-R) MATT RUBY, MAE PLANERT, MARK, JON FISCH, PHIL HANLEYDan Soder of “Billions” fame was there with his fiance Katie Nolan and of course had an amazing set, along with Phil Hanley and Matt Ruby! A totally killer show. On the 1st night I sat in the audience and went back afterwards to shoot some videos. On the 2nd night I sat backstage, and watched from a very different perspective, next to Mark’s wife Mae Planert, with celeb videographer Matt Salacuse who was shooting video of all the comics and the event in general. He caught me, Santino and Soder in a photo that he used for an IG post!
WITH ANDREW SANTINO AND MICHAEL ANGORANO IN MONTREAL 2017
WITH ANDREW SANTINO AT THE BEACON
SALACUSE CAUGHT ME WITH SANTINO AND SODER
WITH THE GREAT DAN SODER
DAN SODER AND KATIE NOLANSo I’m backstage interviewing Andrew Santino about his new movie Ricky Stanicky with Zac Efron, Jermaine Fowler, and John Cena, and in the middle we get sound-bombed ( like photo-bombed but with sound) by Dan Soder, … hilarious. Andrew also tells me about his podcast with Bobby Lee called “Bad Friends” which is touring the country. Listen and laugh!!!
While on stage Mark addressed the crazy TMZ thing that went down at NY Comedy Club when he was escorted off stage in the middle of his set. He had agreed to participate in something fun but didn’t know what it was going to be. He talked about in this video taken after the show.
The crazy thing is that I came up with the idea for Ricky Stanicky many years ago in a treatment I wrote for a film called “Looking For Ed Zintz” where as the result of a practical joke gone wild, started by Milton Berle, … all of Hollywood winds up roasting a man who never existed, supposedly the funniest man to ever walk the planet, Ed Zintz. Ed was supposedly the inspiration for many of the big comedy stars of yesteryear. Set in the made-up world of The Jesters club, in the days before women were allowed to attend the Roasts. I guess it just proves that great minds think alike!!!
Lastly, when Mark did his podcast “Tuesday with Stories” with his co-host Joe List they even talked about me being there. Check this out:
SO NICE TO BE ON TUESDAY WITH STORIES WITH MARK NORMAND AND JOE LISTCHRIS DISTEFANO SELLS OUT TARRYTOWN MUSIC HALL
Chris Distefano made comedy history recently by selling out Radio City on a Friday night and the very next night selling out The Theater at Madison Square Garden. As far as I know never been done before. And he did it easily and with grace. If he was nervous no one knew! (LOL) I was at both shows cause I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.
His buddy James Mattern, one of the best hosts around, opened for him as usual. After the show, which was amazing of course, we shot this little interview backstage where I am most comfortable! (LOL) He told me a funny story about opening for my dear friend Richard Lewis many years before. Unfortunately Richard left us this past week.
D.L. Hughley Sells Out City WineryEvery comic in this column sold out something. Except for me! (LOL) City Winery gets great talent. Most of the time they perform in The Loft upstairs, but when it’s someone like D.L. Hughley, one of the original Kings of Comedy, he gets the main room to accommodate the hundreds, and hundreds of people who want to see him.
D.L. is so smart and so funny and has a very well thought out take on everything that’s going on in the world. And he has a great interest in trying to understand me! (LOL) He once took me out to dinner just to make sure I really ate, because he said he had never seen me eat anything!
D.L. is so secure that he has people hang with him BEFORE he goes on stage, which a lot of comics won’t do. They like to be alone and focus. All D.L. needs is his martini and he tells me about that in this real talk interview we did after his amazing show. He does such a smooth hour, and this was not a typical interview. We talked about everything, including battling fear.
RONNY CHIENG SELLS OUT RADIO CITYRonny Chieng is amazing and also very humble. One of the nicest and funniest guys in the game. He’s on his “Love It To Hate It” tour, and when I got to Radio City the lines were already around the block. The place holds 6,000 people. That’s a lot of people. Especially if they all come over your house for coffee and cake afterwards!
That’s why Ronny held his afterparty in the downstairs lounge at Radio City. And where celeb photog and videographer Marcus Russell Price was taking photos and videos. Marcus is famous in my book for getting the photos of me entering Nick Kroll’s dressing room when he sold out Carnegie Hall. Even Nick’s family was not allowed in, because of Covid restrictions, but for some reason they let ME in! And Russell got the shot as Nick and his WME agent Mike Berkowitz cracked up laughing!
And besides having a cool D.J. who I think said his name was DJ Poon, Ronny had a surprise guest spot from Trevor Noah that rocked the house. Trevor was dressed very casually and explained that he had just gotten off a flight and had no time to change! Shortly after, he hosted the 66th annual Grammy Awards for the 4th time!
Because Ronny, who graduated from law school 15 years ago, is exceedingly polite, he made sure to thank all the white people in attendance who DON’T have Asian partners!
THE MARQUEE
WITH RONNY CHIENG
WITH MARCUS RUSSELL PRICEJIAOYING SUMMERS SELLS OUT NEW YORK COMEDY CLUBJiaoying Summers is a force! Once you see her, an hour later you want more! LOL She’s funny and has the best Chinese accent. Coming out of LA where she actually owns her own comedy club, ( to make sure she got enough stage-time!) she’s conquering audiences and filling up clubs all over the country. I’ve been watching her career blossom, well-deservedly I might add, especially over the last year.
She’s stylish , … and I know you’re not supposed to say things like this anymore, … but she’s also beautiful, and she brings great energy to the stage. And I love that she breaks down stereotypes!!!
So I knew had to make it down to New York Comedy Club’s East Village location to see her sell out two shows. She had Fen Guillaume as her host. who’s really funny and also brings great energy to the stage. I always appreciate that as it’s so important. And also he’s a Kevin Hart look-alike! (LOL)
The audience loved her so much that her merch totally sold out after the show! One guy offered to buy everythying that was left! Can’t wait to see her again!
STAND UP NEW YORK MOVES TO TIMES SQUAREAfter so many years on West 78th Street owner Dani Zoldan made the announcement they were moving the club to Bond 45 in Times Square on West 46th Street. I went to what was supposed to be the very last night on West 78th Street to catch the show, which was an all women’s show with Laura Sogar, my girl Calise Hawkins and Periel Aschenbrand, the co-host of the Comedy Cellar podcast, which I had the honor of being on a couple of times.
(L-R( LAURA SOGAR, THAT GUY, CALISE HAWKINS
PERIEL ASCHENBRAND ON STAGESo then I went to the grand opening of the new club and it’s beautifully laid out, and the food is great. Wellie Jackson was the host on the opening night, Ari Shaffir made a guest appearance, Paul Mecurio did a spot and the special guest was George Wallace. Lady Blaga was in the audience. I stood off to the side with Dani Zoldan watching the show, and I think the club will do great!
WELLIE JACKSON ON STAGE HOSTING THE SHOW
ARI SHAFFIR KILLING IT ON STAGESHORT BITSKudos to Robert Punchur for his great competition show at St. Mark’s Comedy Club thanks to Alex Carabano, featuring lots of great comics like Andrew Steiner, Matt Vita, Alex Goodman and Antonio Barbosa.
Kudos as well to Bradley Laborman for his podcast “This Sucky Broadcast” which I was on recently. Brad is a great host with very insightful and compelling questions.
And as they say, … all good things have to end, and so does this column, so with that, … I’m OUT!!!
See you real soon with lots more comedy news as only Comedy Matters can bring you !!! Leave a positive comment, and you can reach Jeffrey at jeffrey@jeffreygurian.com
The post COMEDY MATTERS SUPERSTAR ROUNDUP WITH CHRIS DISTEFANO, MARK NORMAND, ANDREW SANTINO, DAN SODER, D.L. HUGHLEY, RONNY CHIENG, JIAOYING SUMMERS, … AND EVEN MORE IF YOU CAN BELIEVE IT!!! appeared first on Jeffrey Gurian.
March 12, 2024
COMEDY MATTERS TRIBUTE TO THE GREAT RICHARD LEWIS, R.I. P.
My friendship with Richard Lewis goes back to the 80’s. I don’t remember exactly how we met or exactly when, but I remember going to see him perform in a very big venue, … maybe Westbury, and I was with my ex-wife which means it had to be in the 80’s.
In 1995 he was starring in the movie Drunks. it was premiering in a theater in Manhattan. I remember discussing it with people but don’t remember how I got invited. All I know is that I got there a little late. I had written up some jokes because one of my dreams as a comedy writer was to write for Richard. I had already written for a lot of big names and REALLY wanted to write for Richard. The only problem was that he openly stated he never worked with writers or used anyone else’s jokes.
But I felt like I knew him so well, … actually too well, … as we seemed to share the same neuroses. I believe they came from growing up Jewish! (LOL) So I was determined to write for him and came up with the title of a tour that I felt fit him, .. “Born To Be Nervous.”
I always said if I had a tattoo that’s what it would say. Some guys have tattoos rhat say “Born To Be Wild.”. … mine would say ” Born To Be Nervous.”
For whatever reason I showed up a little late to the theater. I had the jokes with me and my plan was to get there early, find Richard and give him the jokes. But my nervousness and self-sabotage of which I am an expert, got me there a little late, and there was already a long line of people waiting to get in.
I decided to go to the Men’s Room first and as I was walking down the stairs, who was coming up the stairs but Richard Lewis. That can’t even happen but it’s been happening to me all my life. He sees me and says ” What are YOU doing here?” I’m like “I’m here to support you, and I brought you these jokes.”
The jokes were in a folder. He was like, “You know I don’t use anyone else’s jokes.” And I said, “Just read them and see what you think.” He took the folder, went into the theater and I went to the Men’s Room, and afterwards took my seat and watched the movie. It was great and he did a fantastic job. I don’t recall if I saw him afterwards. At that point he was sober about 2 or 3 years. And he would not mind me saying that! He was very proud of his sobriety.
Later that very same day, around 9:30 P.M., I got a voicemail message from him on my answering machine, if any of you remember what that is, because I don’t think they exist anymore. But in those days answering machines were a good way for you to test out your sense of humor by leaving bizarre messages for people who called you. One of my daughters kept every one of my messages and because she wouldn’t delete them she had to get a new machine because she ran out of memory. This is the message I have kept all these years and still treasure, as he kept using the word “Hilarious” to describe my material.
A few years back I was producing a gala in honor of Susie Essman the great comedian, a dear friend, and a star of Curb Your Enthusiasm. I wanted to create a tribute video and needed to get video quotes from three of Susie’s close friends, Richard, Mario Cantone, and D.L. Hughley. Richard and I had lunch at The Friars Club where we were both longtime members. After lunch I was ready to shoot the video tribute. I asked him where he wanted to do it. He said that for Susie it would be appropriate for us to shoot it in the Men’s Room, so we did.
The photos below are of us having lunch at The Friars, us in the Men’s Room with him reading an article about me in The Friars Epistle, their glossy magazine,and the conceit was that I as an investigative reporter who lets nothing stand in his way of getting a story even follows his subject into the stall of the Men’s Room, which explains the third photo! (LOL) In the video below, Richard wants people to know that it was HIS idea to shoot the video in the Men’s Room, … not mine! (LOL)
LUNCH AT THE FRIARS
READING THE EPISTLE ARTICLE ABOUT ME
NOTHING STOPS ME!!!Richard got a kick out of the fact that sometimes people would come over to me and think I was him. In 2022 I went to the premiere of DeNiro’s film Savage Salvation and two different people came over to me to tell me they loved me in “Curb.” They thought I was Richard! It’s happened before and I’m sure it’s the hair! (LOL) I wrote to him about it as I often did in long e-mails and he wrote back a short e-mail, … as HE usually did, that just said “Haaa, I love you!” He often wrote me and just said ” I love you.” It meant so much to me!
BACKSTAGE AT CAROLINES
AT HIS BOOK SIGNING AT B&N
A few months ago, when he made his Parkinson’s diagnosis public, I asked him about doing a podcast with him like he did with Elayne Boosler. He wrote me back one of his longest emails ever, which I copied below in bold. It’s interesting to see how he wrote with the spacing and just a few words on each line. Maybe like something a poet like Bob Dylan would write! (LOL) This is exactly how it looked, spacing and all!
I’m flattered
Dig
This isn’t a podcast
IT’s to keep me busy
There are tons of podcasts that your 2000000 episodic life that merits your tale… not my bullshit
Is the Friars dead?
I admire you
I’ll see how things go
You should’ve been on Gilbert’s
Xxxx
He told me he was fighting to stay alive. I’m sure he fought as hard as he could. R.I.P. Richard. I’ll miss you my friend!
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